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God and the People 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE 

AND OTHER SERMONS 

i2mo, cloth, 381 pages 

FOR CHRIST'S CROWN 

AND OTHER SERMONS 

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THE GOLDEN PASSIONAL 

AND OTHER SERMONS 

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THE WONDROUS CROSS 

AND OTHER SERMONS 

121x10, cloth, 351 pages 

GOD AND THE PEOPLE 

AND OTHER SERMONS 

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PRICE, $1.30 EACH 



WILBUR B. KETCHAM, Publisher 
7 and 9 West Eighteenth Street, New York 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE 



And Other Sermons 



BY 



7 

David James Burrell, D.D. 

Pastor of the Collegiate Church at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, 
New York 



NEW YORK 

WILBUR B. KETCHAM 
7 and 9 West Eighteenth Street 




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43058 



Copyright, 1 899 

BY 

WILBUR B. KETCH AM 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 









s»; 



8EC0NH COPy, 






CONTENTS 



PAGE 

God and the People 7 

The Lord's Horses and Chariots . . . . 21 

Offended in Christ 31 

The Great Day 41 

Peter's Fall 52 

How Felix Lost His Opportunity .... 62 

The Secret of Power . .74 

America for Christ 85 

The Ethical Imperative 96 

Don't Worry 105 

The Twelve 116 

At the Water Gate 127 

At the Threshold of Joseph's House . . . .139 

The Brevity of Life 149 

The Delays of Providence 158 

What is That to Thee? 167 

Rhoda, the Gatekeeper 178 

The Marks of the Lord Jesus 189 

Silence in Heaven 199 

Where the Paths Meet, She Standeth . . . 209 

Was Christ a Christian? 220 

(5) 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Sovereignty of God . . . . . 230 

Mint, Anise and Cummin 240 

The First Easter Sermon 252 

The Great Law of Christ 264 

The Logic of Events 274 

Peter's Salutatory 287 

Three Hundred Years .... . . . 297 

The Forbidden Fruit 310 

At their Wits' End . . . . . . . 320 

Indifferent Gallio 330 

The Battle of the Two Wills ..... 341 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

"Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee."— 
Psalm 67, 5. 

In a bay window overlooking the Strand in London 
sat Thomas Carlyle, pen in hand and eyes upon the 
madding crowd. "There are in the world/' he 
wrote, "about thirteen hundred millions — mostly 
fools. ,, He was not far amiss ; only he should have 
added, Quorum pars magna fui. 

These are the People: Immortal men and women 
jostling one another along the busy ways ; intent on 
getting together a little yellow dust, chasing butter- 
flies and thistle-down, grasping at laurel wreaths; 
men and women "with the geometry of heaven in 
their brain and the unfathomable galaxies," born of 
God and bound for immortality, killing time, caviling 
at destiny, flinging opportunity to the left hand and 
high privilege to the right ; their eyes hot with pas- 
sion and brows scarred by the plowshare of vain chas- 
tisement; blind to yesterday and reckless of to-mor- 
row, ever furnishing forth the wedding feast with 
the baked meats of the last funeral; wielding the lash 
or cringing under it; leading the rattling chariots to 
death, or following in chains; singers and dancers; 

(7) 



8 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

kings and potentates ; misers with muckrakes, profli- 
gates scattering ill-gotten gains; the Upper Ten- 
thousand treading on the heels of the Submerged 
Tenth, and the Third Estate bearing the burdens of 
both; all sorts and conditions of men — reeling, stag- 
gering, jostling — " mostly fools"; fools who, " for- 
ever hastening to the grave, stoop downward as they 
run." And we, alas! among them. 

Who cares ? God cares. The philanthropist who 
leaves him out of the reckoning is an arch-witling. 
God knows the People, sees their Mardi-gras of folly, 
pities their sorrows, and contemplates an ultimate 
deliverance. The Problem of History is before us: 
he alone interprets the logic of events. What seems 
a topsy-turvy world to us is calm evolution to him. 
We are impatient for the consummation : " How long, 
O Lord! " But the eternal years are his. 

There is said to be a focal point above us where 
earth's discords blend in harmony. The clang of the 
workshop and the confused noise of battle, hosannas, 
misereres, moans of the death-chamber and midnight 
carousals, children's prattle and kings' manifestoes — 
all combine in one harmonic chord. At that high 
center is God's throne. There is the viewpoint from 
which he surveys the procession of the ages and 
sends forth edicts that make for the final restitution 
of all things. 

To leave him out of our social science is to run 
without a message; to undertake any reform without 
him is to ensure a fiasco. To profess God and then 
reduce him to a practical nonentity, as Law, or All- 
pervading Force, or A-Something-not-ourselves-that- 
maketh-for-righteousness, is to juggle with words. 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 9 

11 The Specter saith, ' I wait ! ' 
And at the last it beckons, and they pass ; 
And still the red sands fall within the glass, 
And still the hands around the dial sweep ; 
And still the water-clock doth drip and weep ; 
And that is all ! " 

Is that all ? Nay, our God has eyes to see, a 
heart to pity and almighty arms to save. He cares 
for the People, for the surging multitude. Better 
still, he cares for every one. He calleth them by 
name. He numbereth the very hairs of their heads. 
And in this he is no respecter of persons. Purple 
and homespun are alike to him. A man's a man. 
The meanest Zulu kneeling to a wooden fetich is as 
precious in his sight as the Baron Rothschild. He 
notes the guinea, not the guinea's stamp. To this 
Husbandman at the threshing floor the adventitious 
conditions which separate us into castes, as rich and 
poor, plebs and aristocrats, are but chaff which the 
wind driveth away. All are God's children and his 
love is alike toward all. 

Three facts are in evidence: First, his Providence. 
We lay stress upon the contrasts — rags and ermine, 
Murray Hill and Mulberry Bend, crutches and car- 
riages, the plumed hearse and the dead cart — and 
leap to the conclusion, " God's ways are not equal." 
But we see only an insignificant arc of the great cir- 
cle. And we forget the difficulties that confront the 
Ruler of a rebellious world. Colonel Ingersoll says 
that if he were governing the human race, he could 
improve on the present administration ; but there is 
probably no other man who thinks so. The joint 
wisdom of our national Executive and both houses 



IO GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

of Congress was overtaxed by the demands of a pal- 
try camp of 25,000 soldiers at Montauk. But (not 
to speak of hypothetical myriads of other worlds) 
here are some sixteen hundred millions of malcon- 
tents (" mostly fools ") in arms against the divine 
authority ; each differing from his neighbor in char- 
acter and disposition, and every one clamoring for 
his rights. All things considered, we may venture 
the opinion that the God of Providence does fairly 
well. There is an equable distribution of air, sun- 
light, and other necessities. When the state-secrets 
of the divine government are revealed, we shall 
probably discover that food and medicine were 
administered with absolute fairness, and accurately 
adjusted to individual need. And considering, 
further, the compensations of eternity — where the 
crooked shall be made straight and the rough places 
smooth — it behooves us to speak with modest reserve 
of the inequalities of Providence. The God of the 
People is making all things work together for the 
best of each and all. 

The second fact in evidence is Grace. Over against 
all complaints as to the divine administration, its 
injustice or partiality, let us place this manifesto: 
i ' God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish but have everlasting life." Here is no 
discrimination; but universal amnesty, on the sole 
condition that the rebel shall lay down his arms. 

The Man, in whom God inshrined himself for the 
making of these overtures, was one in homespun, 
an average man. He belonged to the Third Estate. 
This is an immensely significant fact in the consider- 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. II 

ation of all philanthropic or sociological problems. 
Holman Hunt represents the Carpenter of Nazareth 
in his shop, chips and shavings around his feet, the 
implements of his trade on the bench before him. 
There he stands in the very coign of vantage for the 
arbitration of all social and industrial controversies. 
He was distinctly a man of the people, knowing their 
needs and sympathizing with them. 

So much as to his personality; What now of his 
teaching ? At this point we appeal to the universal 
consensus. In the doctrines set forth by Jesus of 
Nazareth, finding their magnificent consummation in 
the Sermon on the Mount, we have the only known 
social solvent. Put those principles in practice and 
you reconcile the lofty and the lowly, the king and 
his subjects, capital and labor. Put them in practice 
and you cut the sinews of war and make an utter end 
of injustice. The Golden Rule and that alone can 
usher in the Truce of God. 

Now turn from the teachings of Jesus to his Cross. 
Here is the great answer to all complaints against the 
divine equity. The Son of God was crucified on a 
hilltop, beside the thoroughfare, in presence of the 
multitude, with his hands outstretched. He was the 
people's Christ. He tasted death for every man. 
The benefits of his vicarious death are offered on 
terms within the reach of all. " Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine 
and milk without money and without price. ,, The 
words of his gospel are great words, "all," "every 
one," "whoever," "whosoever." Here surely is no 
respect of persons. The same terms are offered to 



12 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

Nicodemus, — Doctor of Divinity and LL.D. by grace 
of the Sanhedrin, — and the penitent thief standing 
on the crumbling verge of the abyss. Rabbis and 
fishermen, knights and friendless outcasts, vestals and 
magdalens, gathered around his cross. The sub- 
limest deed of self-sacrifice that earth or heaven ever 
gazed on was enacted there. It was the fitting climax 
and consummation of Christ's work for the people. 
There was never a moment in his ministry when he 
could not have relieved himself from all danger by 
identifying himself with the aristocratic party. The 
Jews, led by their phylacteried rabbis, wished him 
to dispense salvation to them alone. His answer was : 
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
eternal life." This " whosoever" was the shibboleth 
of his redemptive crusade. He had compassion on 
the multitudes, seeing them as sheep without a shep- 
herd. The philosophers by the Ilissus had elaborated 
a system for the learned few ; Jesus set forth a gospel 
plain and simple for wayfaring men. Wherefore 
"the people heard him," "the people pressed upon 
him," "the common people heard him gladly." His 
devotion to the welfare of the masses — "the unshod 
multitude " — provoked the wrath of the ecclesiastical 
gentry. It was they who sentenced him to death; 
and dying he "tasted death for every man." 

The third fact in evidence is the Church. And here 
we approach more nearly the matter in hand. For 
the objection taken by non-Christian Sociologists to 
the gospel as a leavening force, is directed not 
against Christ but against his faithless Church. 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 1 3 

What is the Church ? Not a coterie of good 
people; but sinners all, distinguished from other 
sinners only by their acceptance of Christ. Not a 
company of truth-seekers; they are not seeking truth 
but profess to have found it in the revealed Word 
of God. Not an Ethical Society, casting about 
for a trustworthy code of morals; this also they 
profess to have found in the Decalogue, the Sermon 
on the Mount, and the exemplary Jesus, who alone 
of men lived up to the full measure of this moral 
law. 

What then is the Church ? The great living organism 
through which God is working, by the power of his Spirit, 
for the deliverance of the world from sin. Its business 
is to save men. 

But where shall it begin ? Its first concern, in the 
necessity of the case, is with the immortal soul. For 
what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his endless life ? Here is where a secular 
philanthropist fails — fails at the outset, utterly and 
lamentably. He magnifies an handbreadth of time 
beyond the measure of the interminable aeons. He 
pleads for higher wages and sends the wage-earner 
out into eternity without a penny to his name. He 
insists on an antiseptic for typhoid germs, leaving 
undisturbed the mortal, miasmatic reek of sin. He 
puts a roof over a man's head for threescore years, 
and turns him forth at last a homeless tramp. The 
"rule of three " puts this altruist to an open shame, 
thus; as the flight of an eagle is to the incalculable 
sweep of eternity so is the work of a secular philan- 
thropist to that of a wise fisher of men. 

The Church begins at the beginning. It saves a 



14 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

sinner from the record of a mislived past by pointing 
him to Christ who alone has power to forgive sin. 
Without this, no matter how you improve a man's 
outward conditions, his life is that of an unabsolved 
convict who " drags at each remove a lengthen- 
ing chain." One of the current problems of legisla- 
tion is the formulation of a wise and equitable bank- 
rupt law, which shall cancel a hopeless indebtedness 
with no unnecessary wrong, rehabilitate a stripped 
and shivering insolvent and set him on his feet again, 
a man among busy men. There is a corresponding 
problem in the larger province of life. The sinner is 
an utter bankrupt. " Turning over a new leaf " will 
not help him. An effort to " brace up "is at once 
grotesque and pathetic. His life is hobbled with 
ball-and-chain; handicapped by hopeless insolvency. 
What will you do with him ? The Church brings 
him to Christ; who says, " Arise and stand upon thy 
feet; thy sins be forgiven thee ! " 

At this point the Church stands alone as the great 
reformatory agency. But here her default begins. 
"This ought ye to have done and not to have left the 
other undone. " What is that other ? All philanthropic 
service. The Lord enjoined upon his followers the 
deliverance of the whole man. It is a difficult mat- 
ter to consider soul and body apart; as Tristram 
Shandy says, "They are like a jerkin and its lining; 
if you rumple the one, you rumple the other." This 
the Church has too often forgotten. Her Master 
was ever mindful of it. He fed the five thousand 
while he preached to them. He healed disease while 
probing for the sin beneath it. He denounced the 
Pharisees not more for blocking the gateway of 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 1 5 

heaven than for devouring widows' houses. He 
preached a religion which touches life at every point 
in its circumference; a religion as free, all-pervasive 
and irrepressible as the atmosphere, which rests upon 
every portion of the body with an equable and inva- 
riable pressure. 

Just here the Church should welcome all just 
criticisms from without. Faithful are the wounds of 
a friend. But let censure keep within the boundaries 
of truth. For when the worst is said, it still remains 
that the Church is the great Philanthropic Society of 
the ages. All other agencies for the betterment of 
society have been but as glowworms to a lighthouse. 
Notwithstanding the shortcomings of the Church, 
there is more of benevolent power in her little finger 
than in the loins of all secular bodies. In the Chari- 
ties Directory of the Borough of Manhattan there are 
above twelve hundred institutions for the relief of 
diverse suffering, and of these all that depend upon 
non-religious support can be counted on the fingers 
of four men. "The world before Christ, ,, says Lut- 
hardt, "was a world without love. ,, Back of the 
fallible Church stands Christ, her faultless champion. 
He has been the historic Friend of humanity. We 
may accuse his people of manifold sins and short- 
comings; but as for Christ himself, we bow the knee 
and cry, " Hosanna! " His gospel is the world's only 
hope. His Church, with all its faults, has come 
through the centuries like Milton's angel with the 
flaming torch, the morning following in its wake. 
Let us be fair. The Church is not what it should be, 
but by the grace of God it is what it is. 

But O the unrealized possibilities, the latent en- 



1 6 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

ergy, the lamentable waste ! Let all men call these to 
the remembrance of the followers of Christ. Let 
them exhort us to give heed not only to spiritual 
want, but to all the ills that human flesh is heir to. 
It is recorded that when Christ came to a village 
the people, advised of his approach, brought their 
sick and laid them on couches along the way. He 
opened blind eyes, healed withered arms, bade the 
paralytic stand upon his feet; and he left the village 
rejoicing and making merry because he had passed 
through it. 

The business of Christ's people is to follow him. 
We are reminded by those who make no profession 
of religion that we have not faithfully followed him 
into the dense centers of population, the haunts of 
misery and shame. The point is well taken; we 
must not resent it. " But what has the Church to do 
with the hygienic conditions of the slums ? " Much 
every way. The only approach to a soul is through 
the atmosphere that environs it. In one of Dr. Guth- 
rie's letters he tells of visiting on a winter's day a 
woman dying in an attic, on whom all his earnest 
appeals made no impression. At length he said, " My 
good woman, do you not realize that you are passing 
into eternity ? Do you care nothing that you must 
in a few moments stand before the Judgment bar ? " 
She shivered as she drew the scant covering of her 
bed about her, and said, "No more would vou, .Dr. 
Guthrie, if you were as cold as I am. " 

We are reminded, furthermore, that the Church 
has a duty to perform in the controversy as to Capital 
and Labor. It was not a churchman who wrote the 
"Song of the Shirt," but his words from without 



GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 1 7 

broke the spell of Christian apathy and revolution- 
ized the wage-system of London : 

11 O men with sisters dear, 

O men with mothers and wives, 
It is not linen you're wearing out, 
But human creatures' lives ! " 

Nor was it a churchman who wrote, 

"O ye wha are so guid yoursel', 

Sae pious and sae holy, 
Who've naught to do but mark and tell 

Your neebors' fauts and folly ; — 
O gently scan your brother man, 

Still gentler sister woman ; 
Though they may gang a kennin wrang 

To step aside is human." 

But Robert Burns's outburst made the ears of all 
Zion to tingle and shamed the unco guid into a 
larger charity. 

We are called to account, also, for our comparative 
indifference to political reform. This world would 
be a better world to live in — our land a better coun- 
try ; our cities less like Sodom — had the followers of 
the Nazarene Prophet been true to his injunction, 
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." 
Alas! they have too meekly acquiesced in the squat- 
ter's claim: "This is Satan's preserve; no trespass- 
ing. " Welcome the day when from any quarter the 
shame and cowardice of this ecclesiastical inertia 
shall be exposed. Cry aloud, all secular philanthro- 
pists, cry aloud and spare not; lift up your voices 
like trumpets and show the Church her sin ! 

And what shall be said of the Temperance prob- 
lem ? In a land where church spires point toward 



1 8 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

heaven from every hilltop, and where twenty-seven 
millions of people profess the worship of the true 
God, we spend one thousand millions per annum for 
strong drink. And where is the adequate protest ? 
Does the Church make it ? Aye, as the chirp of a 
lone sparrow on a housetop against the whirlwind 
sweeping on ! In this Borough of Manhattan there 
are six thousand dramshops ; side by side they 
make a twenty-five mile thoroughfare of licensed 
man-traps. These are confessedly the breeding places 
of political corruption ; and we clamor for Municipal 
Reform! There can be no municipal reform while 
we tolerate these belching mouths of hell. Let the 
ax be laid at the root of the tree. And let judgment 
begin at the house of God. 

O, there is much to be done before the bride 
shall make herself ready for her marriage with the 
King's son. Let the taunt of "the lapsed masses " 
and " the unchurched multitude" ring in her ears 
unceasingly. Let altruists who decline to call them- 
selves Christians, put her in perpetual remembrance 
of her shortcomings. She needs to come into a 
closer and more sympathetic contact with the People. 
She needs a wider door of welcome and as comfort- 
able a pew for the fellow-craftsman of her Lord of 
Nazareth as for the man wearing the gold ring. Too 
often she permits the legend of St. Sebald — who 
warmed himself in an open piazza at a fire of icicles 
— to be realized in her vestibules. Her sacred hospi- 
tality must shelter the rich and poor alike, since the 
Lord is the Maker of them all. — She needs a broader 
sweep in all her charitable enterprises. Let the Priest 
and the Levite be admonished by the good Samari- 






GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 1 9 

tan, that if they would win the gratitude and fellow- 
ship of the wounded traveler, they must no longer 
pass by on the other side. O men and women of the 
Christian Church, have ye forgotten the Master's 
word, " Go out into the highways and hedges and 
constrain them to come in " ? Go! Christ said it 
long centuries ago: the world repeats it now. Ye 
have stood too long in your doorways beckoning and 
pulling your bell-ropes. Go up into the attics, down 
into the basements, out into the slums, away to the 
uttermost parts of the earth! Where is the lantern 
that your Lord carried on the dark mountains ? 
Where is the quick, responsive heart that heeds the 
distant cry for help ? The great commission is unful- 
filled. At the threshold of the Twentieth Century we 
hear the cry of twelve hundred millions still unsaved, 
"No man careth for our souls! " Awake, O Zion; 
shake thyself from the dust and loose thyself from 
the bands of thy neck ! Put on thy beautiful gar- 
ments, O daughter of Jerusalem, and let all the 
people know that thou bringest good tidings of great 
joy! 

One thing more. If those who are seeking by sec- 
ular methods to regenerate society would make their 
philanthropic influence tell to the utmost, let them 
fall in with the Militant Church, like Hobab of Akiba, 
and lend a hand. The place to clean house is indoors. 
Guerrilla service is a poor makeshift for campaigning. 
If the Christian Church with all her faults is the 
greatest of social forces, the place of true reformers 
is within her fellowship. To spend one's energies in 
the mere betterment of the physical environment of 
the people is to undertake to boil the kettle from the 



20 GOD AND THE PEOPLE. 

top. The greatest of sociological problems, when all 
is said and done, is to regenerate the moral nature of 
humanity and bring it into harmony with the social 
order of the universe. God and immortality must 
come into the reckoning. Leigh Hunt was a poor 
philosopher. No man who fails to recognize the 
supreme claims of the All-Father can be written 
down as "one who loves his fellow men": for the 
brotherhood of man rests on the Fatherhood of God, 
Let us by all means make a heaven here below, but 
alas for us if we see not another, a larger and eternal 
heaven beyond. This is the vision revealed in the 
gospel of Christ. The prisoner of Chillon, doomed 
to a solitary despair, saw a rift in his dungeon wall. 
Dragging his chain, he clambered upward and looked 
through. There lay the green valley with the silver 
river gliding through and the blue heavens over all. 
As he gazed through tears, a bird began to sing — 

" A lovely bird with azure wings, 
And song that said a thousand things, 
And seemed to say them all to me." 

Our world is populous with sorrowing souls; it is for 
us to lighten the pains of their imprisonment, but, 
best of all, to help them upward to the window that 
opens toward the eternal life. This is to bring them, 
despite all narrowness of circumstance, into the glo- 
rious liberty of the children of God. 



THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

41 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may 
see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw : and, be- 
hold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire."— II. Kings 6, 17. 

The man at the front is not the only one who serves 
his country. Elisha the prophet would doubtless 
have cut a sorry figure in managing a catapult, 
or in handling a bow; but he turned his talents 
to splendid account as a spy. His gift of spiritual 
insight enabled him to see what was going on in the 
secret chambers of the king of Syria; and he rendered 
an invaluable service to Israel by disclosing his plans. 

The matter being reported to Benhadad, he deter- 
mined forthwith to make away with the meddling 
prophet. A wise decision; — but " first catch your 
hare." He was told that Elisha, in company with 
a young man from the School of the Prophets, had 
gone to Dothan ; and straightway troops were sent to 
invest the place. 

The next morning bright and early the young man 
arose and climbed the walls ; perhaps, to see the glory 
of the sunrise or the fields glistening with dew. But 
what a sight was this? Syrians! Syrians on every 
side! Yonder was the pavilion of the Commander- 
in-chief, with the royal standard waving over it. 

(21) 



2 2 THE LORD S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

Sentinels were pacing to and fro. Little wonder the 
youth was dismayed. He called Elisha, saying, 
"Alas, master, what shall we do ? " The prophet 
replied, calmly, "Be of good courage; they that be 
for us are more than they that be against us." What 
could he mean? Then he prayed, "O Lord, open 
the eyes of this young man that he may see! " And 
he saw, and, behold, the mountain was full of horses 
and chariots of fire. 

It was a great day for that young man. He was 
beginning his postgraduate course. For there are 
some parts of a man's equipment which cannot be ac- 
quired in college or in the curriculum of professional 
schools. John Brown of Haddington said to one of 
his theological classes, "Young men, there are three 
things necessary to your success as ambassadors of 
Christ: one is grace, which the Lord stands ready to 
give you; the second is knowledge, which I have 
done my best to impart; but the third is common 
sense — and if you have not that, neither God nor 
man can help you." And there are other branches 
of learning, besides common sense, which can only 
be acquired by contact with the world and a practi- 
cal acquaintance with men. Our youth at Dothan 
was learning some things of great value, things to 
ponder about and preach to the people in after days. 

It must have dawned upon him at the outset that 
his eyes were not so good as he had supposed them 
to be. There is, indeed, an optic nerve that lies 
dormant until God touches and thrills it. In our 
natural state we are myopic and "cannot see afar 
off." Poor eyes of ours! We see "as in a glass 
darkly;" that is, by reflection. The atmosphere is 



THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 23 

hazy, the mirror is blurred, the image distorted. We 
reason from poor premises, and our conclusions are 
partial and inadequate. But one day the shadows 
will lift and we shall "see face to face and know 
even as we are known." 

Meanwhile we do wisely to acknowledge the imper- 
fection of our vision. " There are " as Hamlet said, 
"more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt 
of in our philosophy." We are bond slaves of the 
senses; refusing to believe in what lies beyond the 
reach of fleshly eyes and finger tips. Wherefore, 
" we know in part and we prophesy in part." The 
great world — the world of eternal realities and certi- 
tudes — is ever beyond us. But there is a better day 
coming, when we shall see with our Master's eyes; 
"when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we 
shall see him as he is." 

The prayer of Elisha was heard. The eyes of the 
young student were opened and he caught a glimpse 
of things unseen and eternal. It marked a turning- 
point of his life. He could never again be the same 
man. 

I. He formed, that day, a new conception of God. In the 
School of the Prophets he had devoted his particular 
attention to theology; that is the science of God. He 
had learned to define the Deity in such terms as are 
familiar to us: "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and 
unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
justice, goodness and truth." He had theorized about 
his attributes. He had estimated his stature in terms 
of arithmetic and measured his stately steppings with 
a span. He had speculated about him as an invisible 
and impalpable somewhat to be assumed as the con- 



§4 THE LORDS HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

venient basis of a doctrinal system. But now he per- 
ceived that he was the living, all-pervading, imma- 
nent One. So Moses in the desert of Midian, seeing 
the bush burning and not consumed, said, "I will 
draw near and inspect this wonder." And, lo, a voice 
from the burning bush said, " Take off thy shoes 
from off thy feet, for the ground whereon thou stand- 
est is holy ground. I AM THAT I AM." It is a 
great moment for any man when he begins to appre- 
hend God as a personal Factor in the affairs of na- 
tions and men. 

The prophet and this youth were compassed about 
by their foes. It now became apparent that God had 
not forgotten them. He is indeed "a very present 
help in time of trouble," "a refuge from the storm, a 
shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible 
ones is as a storm against the wall." Here is sinking 
Peter; a helping hand is reached forth to him. Here 
is doubting Thomas; a hand pierced with the irrefu- 
table logic of the atonement is stretched out to him, 
with the word, " Be not faithless, but believing!" 
Here is dying Stephen; amid a shower of stones, he 
beholds his Lord standing on the right hand of the 
Father, extending a hand of gracious welcome to him. 

God wills that his people shall not fret nor worry; 
because he is always near by. "My foes compass 
me about like bees, " sings David ; ' ' they are quenched 
as the fire of thorns; for in the name of the Lord I 
will destroy them!" He is recalling an incident of 
his boyhood, when he thoughtlessly molested the 
hive and the bees came swarming about him, buz- 
zing, stinging; contemptibly small and irresistibly 
pestilent. So are the worries of life. They make 



THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 25 

Our days melancholy and our nights sleepless. I 
know of no deliverance save in the thought of a pres- 
ent God. Our foolish fret and groundless fear are 
quenched as a fire of thorns when we realize that our 
Father knoweth and is mindful of us. Here is a great 
truth for common uses. In all Christ's teaching there 
is nothing more helpful than this: "Consider the 
lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, nei- 
ther do they spin ; and yet I say unto you that Solo- 
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these. Are ye not of much more value than they ?" 

II. The young man gained, moreover, on that memorable 
day, a new apprehension of History. If you had asked 
him concerning the war then being waged, he would 
probably have told you that the parties immediately 
concerned were Jehoram and Benhadad. He had yet 
to learn that kings and potentates are but puppets in 
the hands of the Omnipotent. 

" He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty; 
He maketh subjects to their power obey; 
He pulleth down, he setteth up on high; 
He gives to that, from this he takes away: 
For what he will do, that he may. 

God is ever present in the affairs of nations as of 
men. " The kings of the earth set themselves and 
the rulers take counsel together, saying, c Let us 
break his bands asunder and cast his cords from 
us. ' He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the 
Lord shall have them in derision. ,, What is history 
but the stately steppings of the Almighty along 
the ages ? He is determining the outcome of every 
conflict with a view to his own glory in the setting 
up of his kingdom. 



26 • THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

Pharaoh said, " I have the children of Israel shut 
up between the mountains and the sea. " But God 
outwitted him, lifting the waters in crystal walls, that 
his people might go through dryshod. 

Herod said, "If it be true that a new King is born 
in Bethlehem, I will speedily dispose of him." There 
was a voice of lamentation in Ramah, Rachel weeping 
for her children ; but while Herod's men were bath- 
ing their swords in the blood of the innocents, the 
Christ-child was far away. 

Philip of Spain determined to send an armada 
against the Protestant nations that should put a 
speedy quietus on their heresy. God said, "I will 
breathe on Philip's fleet." Deus afflavit! And lo, the 
great armada was scattered like driftwood on a 
hundred shores. Outwitted again ! 

The King of England led forth a magnificent army 
of cavaliers against the Covenanters. He looked over 
the brow of the hill and said, " Behold yon handful 
of Scots ! They are on their knees. Up, brave men, 
and at them ! " The cry was, " Ho for Cavaliers ! " 
But the handful of Scots met them with a braver and 
calmer shout, "God with us ! " And Edward's army 
was scattered like chaff before the wind. Thus God 
ever outwits the enemies of his people and maketh 
the wrath of men to praise him. 

" O, blest is he to whom is given 
The instinct that can tell 
That God is on the field, when He 
Is most invisible. '* 

III. The youth learned, also, in that day of revelation, 
that the world is larger than he had imagined. Had he 



THE LORDS HORSES AND CHARIOTS, 27 

been asked the dimensions of the world, he would 
have said: "It is bounded on the north by Dan, on 
the south by Beersheba, on the east by the Euphrates, 
and on the west by the Great Sea. " We are all living 
in our vicinage. We refuse to believe that there is 
anything beyond the crest of the hill. But, indeed, 
there is much beyond. There are nations stretching 
out earnest hands to us. The land of duty and 
responsibility lies largely past the Pillars of Hercules. 
We are little people because we choose to live in a 
little world. 

And upward the outlook is larger still. Let us not 
shrink from accepting the doctrine of angels. The 
unseen world is infinitely more populous and nearer 
than we think. There is nothing irrational in the 
thought that invisible beings are all around us. The 
old poet, Hesiod, said: "Thrice ten thousand guard- 
ians of mortal men walk the broad, life-feeding earth. 
Enwrapped in air, they scan the good and evil deeds 
of men." Milton wrote: 

11 Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth 
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep." 

Our youth, in the School of the Prophets, had 
doubtless read of Jacob's dream. He had questioned 
with his fellow students whether it was only a dream ; 
or were these real angels passing up and down? To- 
day he understood. He saw beyond the overhanging 
bank of clouds the hierarchies of angels and arch- 
angels. Who shall number the Lord's host ? It is 
like the sands of the seashore for multitude. Myriads 
on myriads! Armies on armies! The young man at 
Dothan saw merely a detachment of the vanguard; 



28 THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

but he began to realize that he was a living part of 
a great universe of rational beings, which includes 
angels and saints triumphant waiting at the throne 
of God. 

IV. And in the new light that dawned upon hint, life 
seemed a more serious thing. He had discussed at 
school the question of immortality pro and con : il If 
a man die, shall he live again ?" Now he knew. 
Life is brief indeed ; an handbreadth, a swift eagle 
hastening to its prey, a dream, a shadow, a tale that 
is told. "Out, out, brief candle; life's but a walk- 
ing shadow! " 

But what of the sequel ? Life must be measured 
in terms of eternity. Otherwise it is not worth living. 
What we call life is but the opening chapter of an 
endless serial. It is the vestibule of an infinite tem- 
ple; we climb the weary steps and reach the gates 
with panting breath, and knock; and an angel with 
shining face opens to us, saying, "I am he whom you 
have maligned as 'the King of Terrors.' Come in, 
and begin to live!" 

Our present years are probationary to eternity. 
Herein lies their grandeur and solemnity. We are 
soon going to join the majority. We are destined to 
the incalculable possibilities of an endless future. 
What we are to be there depends upon what we make 
of ourselves here and now. As the tree falleth, so 
shall it lie. 

In view of the revelations of that day at Dothan it 
is safe to say that the young student looked forward 
to the ministry with new plans and purposes. He 
had learned some things which cannot be gotten out 
of books. He could no longer think of himself as a 



THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 29 

prophet rendering a merely perfunctory service. 
When the saintly McCheyne lay dying, he opened 
his eyes and said, " I have looked into eternity! O, 
if I could come back now and preach ! If I might 
but meet my people once again in the light of these 
revelations !" Ah, we should all be better preachers 
and better men if our eyes were opened to see things 
as they are. 

O for open eyes ! It was to this end that Christ 
visited the world. He came to show us God in a 
new light, as an ever present, ever living, ever potent 
One. He came to give us new conceptions of the 
world and the solemnities of life. He came to show 
us ourselves, so little in the sight of the Infinite and 
in comparison with the vast universe; and yet so 
great, having in our nostrils the divine breath, elect 
to be colaborers with God and destined to share his 
immortality. "How poor, how rich; how abject, 
how august; how complicate, how wonderful, is man ! 
An heir of glory, a frail child of dust! A worm, a 
god!" 

Let us make the prayer of Bartimeus, " O that I 
might receive my sight ! " There was a world of life 
and beauty all around him, and he, blind beggar, had 
never seen it. " O that I might receive my sight ! M 
Jesus heard him ; and in an instant all was revealed ; 
the sky above, the green meadows, the purple vine- 
yards, the olive orchards. O the joy of seeing ! But 
faith gets larger visions still, of God and immortal- 
ity, of truth and goodness, of present duty and 
boundless vistas of influence. Why shall not our 
revelation come just now ? Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by. Make your prayer, " O that I might receive my 



30 THE LORD'S HORSES AND CHARIOTS. 

sight ! " Then, behold the King in his beauty; and 
stand ready at his word. " Say not, It is yet four 
months, and then cometh the harvest. Lift up your 
eyes and see ; the fields are already white unto the 
harvest." Thrust in your sickle and reap ! In view 
of all the solemnities and possibilities of life, here and 
hereafter, let us address ourselves to present respon- 
sibility. We live for eternity. Let us live for our 
Master, live to-day! 



OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

" From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with 
him."— John 6, 66. 

The incident here referred to occurred on the day 
following the multiplication of the loaves. On the 
further shore of Gennessaret the Lord had been 
preaching to the multitudes. It was at the time of 
the Passover, and the road was thronged with pil- 
grims on their way to Jerusalem. Many turned aside 
to hear the great Preacher. The day closed with the 
miracle of the loaves. So deeply were the people im- 
pressed by the words and works of Jesus that they 
proposed to make him a king. " We are on our way 
to Jerusalem," they said, "where we shall meet a 
multitude from all parts of Jewry, thronging the 
streets and encamped on the hillsides. Why not 
employ the opportunity to deliver ourselves from the 
Roman yoke ? Let us escort this Wonder-worker to 
Jerusalem, place him on the Davidic throne and raise 
the cry, ' God save the king!'" But Jesus knew 
their purpose and determined to thwart it; to this 
end he withdrew again into the mountain himself 
alone. Later, when he did not return, his disciples 
went down to the shore and embarked for Capernaum, 
while storm-clouds were gathering over the lake. 

(31) 



32 OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

The next morning these pilgrims, resuming their 
journey, rounded the lake and came to Capernaum, 
and there they found Jesus. "Rabbi," they asked, 
" when earnest thou hither ? " He gave them no an- 
swer. The fact was that, as the night closed in and 
the tempest fell, he had seen from his mountain soli- 
tude the disciples toiling at the oars ; and he had 
come to them walking on the sea. At his command 
the waves were stilled ; and in the boat with his dis- 
ciples he reached Capernaum before the pilgrims, 
who followed early in the morning. 

He gave no heed to their inquiry, "When earnest 
thou hither ? " because he had somewhat to say more 
clearly to the point; namely, "Ye seek me not be- 
cause ye perceived the deep significance of my mir- 
acles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were 
filled. ,, It was a merited rebuke and quite true; but 
indeed it was not a pleasant thing to say. The speaker 
was unmindful of that stringent rule of dialectics 
which requires him to win the confidence of his 
audience at the outset. How much wiser, apparently, 
was Paul's exordium on Mars' Hill: "Ye men of 
Athens, I perceive that ye are exceedingly devout. " 
But Jesus was no word-juggler, no weaver of com- 
pliments; his introduction was an arrow speeding to 
the mark. 

Then followed one of his most remarkable dis- 
courses, touching some of the deepest problems of 
the spiritual life; containing not a word of clever 
adulation, but much of profound, heart-searching 
truth. The further he proceeded, the more did he 
alienate his audience. "These are hard sayings," 
they murmured ; "who can hear them?" One by 



OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 33 

one they dropped away, until he was left with a 
mere handful of the faithful. It was a stampede; 
and little wonder. Fair-weather Christians are ever 
offended by downright truth ; and they are ever falling 
away, turning backward and following him no more. 

It is a mistake to suppose that we can accept Jesus 
without approving his doctrine. No half-way approach 
will answer; no piecemeal approval can satisfy him. It 
is not enough to rhapsodize about his Sermon on the 
Mount; we must accept with equal heartiness his Ser- 
mon to the Pharisees, " Woe unto you, hypocrites; 
how can ye escape the damnation of hell! ,, It is 
not enough to approve his miracles of healing at 
Bethesda; we must consent, also, to the withering of 
the fig-tree. The parables of the Good Samaritan 
and the Prodigal Son, all sweetness and light, must 
be coupled with those of Dives and Lazarus and the 
Wheat and the Tares. The word of the Master, " He 
that believeth shall be saved " is no truer than its 
obverse, "He that believeth not shall be damned." 
His teaching must be accepted in its entirety, with- 
out demur or reservation. And this suggests why so 
many were and are still offended in him. 

The first doctrine which gave offense to the multitudes on 
this occasion was that of Chris fs Divinity. He said, " I 
am come down from heaven'*; and " This is the will 
of the Father who sent me, that of those whom he 
hath given me, I should lose none but should raise 
them up at the last day." In this "coming down " 
and being " sent of the Father/' we have a clear ref- 
erence to his pre-existence. It is like a paraphrase 
of John's saying, "In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ; 



34 OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 
The people were perplexed and bewildered by this 
doctrine. " How is it that he saith, 'I came down 
from heaven ' ? Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph 
the carpenter, whose mother and father we know ? " 
There are many in our time also who are willing to 
believe that Jesus was an excellent man ; that there 
was no guile in his heart, nor guile on his lips. Nay, 
they will go further; he was the very highest exem- 
plification of manhood and truest character; the best 
of mortal men. Thus Renan, an avowed unbeliever, 
closes his biography of Jesus with the words, " What- 
ever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will 
never be surpassed. His worship will grow young 
without ceasing; his legend will call forth tears with- 
out end; his sufferings will melt the noblest hearts ; 
all ages will proclaim, that, among the sons of men, 
there is none born greater than Jesus." But this is 
not enough ; by the stern necessity of logic, we must 
go further or turn back. 

Others are willing to receive him as prophet — an 
ambassador with a message. They perceive how he 
touched the great problems of spiritual truth by 
which the philosophers of his time were perplexed 
and bewildered, cutting the Gordian knots. He set 
forth God and immortality, judgment and eternal 
glory, as an eye witness. He spoke "not as the 
scribes, but as one having authority." The Rabbis 
were amazed at his profundity; the common people 
heard him gladly. It is a proverb, " He spake as 
never man spake." All this maybe admitted, and 
Christ rejected still. This is not enough. In com- 
mon reason, we must go further or turn back. 



OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 35 

The claims of Jesus were explicit. To the woman 
of Samaria who had spoken hopefully of the coming 
of the Messiah he answered, " I that speak unto thee 
am he." To Philip, who had said, "Show us the 
Father, and it sufficeth us," he replied, "Have I 
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Fa- 
ther ? Believest thou not that I am in the Father 
and the Father in me ? " To the young ruler who 
prostrated himself before him, crying, "Good Rab- 
bi!" he made quick response, "Why callest me 
good? There is none good but one; that is God." 
In other words, he was either more or less than 
"Good Rabbi." There must be no half-way con- 
cession; it was Godhood or nothing for him. And 
when doubting Thomas, overwhelmed by the testi- 
mony of his pierced hands, prostrated himself with 
the cry, "My Lord and my God!" he uttered no 
disclaimer. We have, therefore, no alternatives but 
these: we must either pronounce him a charlatan and 
an impostor, or else acquiesce in his tremendous 
claims and yield him homage as our Lord and God. 

The second doctrine by which the people were offended 
that day was Justification by Faith, The sermon of 
Jesus turned on the similitude of bread suggested, 
no doubt, by the miracle of the loaves. He said, 
"I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna 
in the wilderness and are dead. I am the living 
bread which came down from heaven, of which if a 
man eat he shall never die. And the bread that I 
will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
the world." 



2,6 OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

The meaning is plain: he presents himself as their 
Saviour from sin. Of all that multitude of pilgrims 
there was not one who was insensible of guilt, or 
who did not desire to be delivered from it. Else why- 
had they journeyed from afar to partake of the 
paschal lamb ? The figure is most expressive ; bread 
is "the staff of life." So is Jesus, to an immortal 
soul, the way, the truth, the life. 

And here, furthermore, is a suggestion of the plan 
of salvation, salvation by the cross. "The bread which 
I will give is my flesh." This bread must be broken ; 
it is broken on Calvary. He was wounded for our 
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that by 
his stripes we might be healed. He took upon him- 
self the burden of our sins, and bore them on his 
mighty heart until it broke. He suffered death that 
we might live through him. 

And further, it suggests the condition on which a soul 
receives the benefit of the great redemption : "He that 
believeth shall be saved." Faith is acceptance. It 
is not the lamb on the altar, but the blood sprinkled 
on the door posts, that averts the sword of the 
destroying angel. It is not bread on the table that 
satisfies our hunger, but bread eaten and assimilated, 
so that it becomes bone, sinew, brain, our very selves. 
Wherefore he said, " Except ye eat the flesh and drink 
the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you." 

This is the hardest of all the hard sayings of Jesus; 
it is " the offense of the cross." A thousand excuses 
are given for rejecting Christ, but back of them all is 
a natural repugnance to free grace. Our pride revolts 
at a salvation "without money and without price. " 
It were easier for men to undertake a pilgrimage to 



OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 37 

Mecca or the Ganges than to consent to be saved 
gratis. Yet this is the gospel plan. "The Jews 
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom ; 
but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stum- 
blingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to 
them that are saved, Christ the power and the 
wisdom of God." 

The third of the hard sayings of Jesus, by which the 
multitude were repelled, was the doctrine of the Kingdom. 
He said, when they murmured, " Doth this offend 
you ? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man 
ascending up where he was before ? " — that is, to 
reassume the glory which he had with the Father be- 
fore the world was. There he sits to-day, " expecting 
until his enemies shall be made his footstool." He 
superintends from that high place the setting up of 
his kingdom by the deliverance of the world from sin. 

It w r as perhaps too much to expect that the people 
would receive this truth. The contrast was too great. 
There he stood ; a man in homespun, the carpenter's 
son, a man of the people. Some of his hearers, 
perhaps, had seen him in his shop mending the plows 
and furniture of the village folk. And he claimed to 
be the heir-apparent of the heavenly throne! They 
had been willing in their enthusiasm to bestow upon 
him the Judaean crown ; but that was nothing to him. 
A mere bauble! He awaited a crown of stars; and 
the kings of the earth should bring their glory and 
honor to him. — It was indeed a hard saying; who 
could hear it ? 

But there is no such reason for rejecting the doc- 
trine of the Kingdom now. We have the testimony 
of history. This Jesus of Nazareth has come down 



38 OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

through the centuries, a most majestic Figure, with 
a light shining from his face that has long since pene- 
trated the regions lying in darkness and the shadow 
of death. He has marked out with his scepter the 
ever-enlarging boundaries of the mystic circle which 
we call "Christendom." At his approach the doors 
of the benighted nations have opened to the procla- 
mation of the evangel. The logic of events adds new 
force to the argument with each succeeding day. The 
conquest of the Soudan, the rending asunder of 
China, the partition of Africa are mere episodes along 
the march. Thoughtful men and women, can ye not 
discern the signs of the times ? Who is this that 
cometh from Edom with garments dyed in blood ? 
From the distant hills where the banner of the cross 
waves over an ever-victorious host, returns the an- 
swer, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to 
.save ! " 

The visible token of Christ's kingdom is his Church. 
Who shall explain the Church ? Here is the great 
miracle of the ages. See the little group emerging 
from the upper chamber, "a feeble folk" like the 
conies, a group of humble fishermen and toiling men. 
The wrath of kings and potentates goes forth against 
them; "Let us whet our swords and kindle the 
fagots; we will exterminate them!" But past the 
fagot-fire and ax and gallows tree, on they come 
along the centuries; thousands, tens of thousands, 
millions now; and still the royal standard onward 
goes. To-day there is a great multitude whom no 
man can number in goodly fellowship; the air is 
resonant everywhere with their chorus, "All hail the 
power of Jesus' name! " 



OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 39 

And the progress of the past is a foregleam of the 
apocalypse. The prophecy of the Kingdom draws 
near its fulfillment. Jesus shall surely reign from the 
river unto the ends of the earth. And the sorrow is 
that men, busy amid the sordid affairs of life, are 
blind to the rising of this " house magnifical. " They 
go about their small affairs, getting together a little 
yellow dust, chasing butterflies and grasping after 
laurel wreaths, oblivious of the fact that the Omnip- 
otent has made bare his arm, and that multitudes 
of earnest men are laboring together with him for 
the betterment of the world in the setting up of this 
kingdom of truth and righteousness. They live for 
things that perish, spend their money for that which 
is not bread, die of soul hunger; and the world pro- 
nounces them successful. The most brilliant life, 
unmindful of the Kingdom, is stupendous waste. 
On many a tombstone of king, statesman, millionaire, 
let this be written : Here lies one whose life was a fail- 
ure. He amassed wealth, found pleasure, was crowned 
with honor j but dying, he went out into eternity a pauper 
before God. 

The man who undertakes to reason against the 
logic of events has a hopeless task before him. The 
words of Jesus with reference to his own ultimate 
triumph, are indeed an hard saying when set over 
against the personality of the carpenter's son; but it 
is impossible to resist them when we lift our eyes on 
what he has wrought in the progress of the centuries. 
As Alexander the Great was advancing through the 
Orient, he asked of a provincial governor the privilege 
of passing through his territory. The answer was, 
"I will call my counselors and deliberate.'' The 



46 OFFENDED IN CHRIST. 

great conqueror retorted : "You may deliberate, but 
I shall be marching on." A man may reject Christ, 
may refuse to receive his doctrines or admit his 
claims. This however is certain: with or without 
him, the Lord of righteousness will pursue his trium- 
phal course among the nations and children of men. 

It is written that when the people heard these say- 
ings of Jesus, "many of them turned back, and walked 
with him no more." There they go! Away from 
Christ; offended by his frankness; all needing him 
and dying for want of him. There they go; their 
backs upon the noonday, their faces toward the night. 
Will ye also go with them ? 

A little group still gathered about Jesus. He asked 
them, "Will ye also go away?" And Peter answered, 
"Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
of eternal life; and we have believed and are sure 
that thou art the Holy One of God. " To whom, indeed, 
can we go? Is there any other who can satisfy us 
with spiritual truth? Alas! none. This Jesus alone 
has the words of eternal life; and blessed are they 
that are not offended in him. 



THE GREAT DAY. 

44 He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in right- 
eousness."— Acts 17, 31. 

It is the Apostle Paul who makes this announce- 
ment. The "ugly little Jew," as Renan calls him, 
was a wonderful preacher. He had made such an 
impression upon the people of Athens in his disputa- 
tions in synagogue and market-place that he was 
brought up to Areopagus for a better hearing. It 
was an historic pulpit; here Socrates had made his 
apology, and Demosthenes had uttered "breathing 
thoughts in burning words." Paul was equal to the 
occasion. His text was the inscription upon an altar 
in the market-place, "To the unknown God." In 
his discourse he showed himself a master of dialec- 
tics. In rounded periods he set forth the nature and 
attributes of the invisible God. He drew upon his 
familiarity with Greek literature for an apt quota- 
tion, — "We are also his offspring." The audience 
that sat upon the stone steps below him listened with 
respectful interest until he ventured to speak of the 
Judgment: "He hath appointed a day in which he 
will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given 

(4O 



42 THE GREAT DAY. 

assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
from the dead." At this point the sermon was inter- 
rupted by derisive outcries and the assembly was 
broken up. 

Why is it that we are so averse to a frank consider- 
ation of this theme ? We are like children frightened 
in the dark. " What fools we mortals be! " Horace 
Smith said, " If a general collection were taken to 
head off the Judgment, the great Jehovah would get 
all our gold and the world would go begging forever. " 
The congregation asks for pleasant platitudes, and 
the preacher shrinks from declaring the whole counsel 
of God. Yet our faces are turned toward the Judg- 
ment, and the issues of eternity are there. Let us, 
like men, confront it. 

As to final retribution there is a universal consen- 
sus. The heart of the race trembles with " a certain 
fearful looking-for of judgment. " The words of 
Longfellow, 

"The mills of God grind slowly, 
But they grind exceeding small; 
Though with patience he stands waiting 
With exactness grinds he all." 

were transcribed from the German, and previously 
from an Oriental couplet running back beyond the 
memory of man : 

" God's mills grind slow, 
But they grind woe." 

It stands to reason that the present order of things 
cannot be final. We are living in a topsy-turvy 
world. There is little of justice or equity in human 
relations. The wicked man prospers, makes merry 



THE GREAT DAY. 43 

all his life on the profits of evil deeds, is followed to 
the tomb by an imposing procession, and transmits 
his name to posterity in a carven catalogue of vir- 
tues. The righteous meanwhile lives from hand to 
mouth and dies with none so poor to do him rever- 
ence. Dives arrayed in purple and fine linen fares 
sumptuously every day; while virtuous Lazarus, sit- 
ting at his gate, begs for the crumbs that fall from his 
table. Is there, then, no justice ? A Scotch woman 
came to her pastor complaining of poverty, " There 
are so many mouths and so little bread." He com- 
forted her with the assurance that the gracious God 
who sends mouths sends loaves as well. " Aye, min- 
ister," she answered, "but whiles it happens he sends 
the mouths to ane hoose and the loaves to anither." 
It was a fair statement of the present order. What 
shall we conclude, then ? There must be a final adjust- 
ment. If there is a God in heaven, he must level 
down and level up and balance the books. As Anne 
of Austria said to Richelieu, "God is a sure Pay- 
master; it may not be to-day, nor to-morrow; but 
presently, my Lord Cardinal, he will administer 
justice betwixt thee and me." 

The teaching of the Scripture as to this matter is 
very clear. Its response to the universal intuition 
and reason is Yea and Amen. " God hath appointed 
a day in which he will judge the world." Now it is 
called the Day of Reckoning, in which the Master 
requires his servants to give an account of the talents 
entrusted to them. Now it is the Day of Ingather- 
ing, when the Husbandman gathers the wheat into 
his garners and casts the tares into the fire. And 
now it is the Marriage Day, when the wise pass in to 



44 THE GREAT DAY. 

mingle in the merrymaking of the Bridegroom's 
house, while the foolish stand without, knocking and 
crying vainly, "Lord, Lord, open unto us!" But 
always it is the Great Day. It is the day toward 
which all the solemn hopes and purposes of the pres- 
ent life are tending, and out of which proceed the 
momentous possibilities of eternity. 

The Scriptures speak, with reference to the gen- 
eral Judgment, in terms of oriental imagery. Indeed, 
all great spiritual truths are conveyed in parables. 
We are but children, and God must stoop to kinder- 
garten methods if he would instruct us. Yet there are 
little people who overlook the stupendous truth in their 
eagerness to pick flaws in the metaphor. They ask, ' ' Is 
the adjudication to be held within a solar day ?" "And 
will it be ushered in, do you mean, with the blowing 
of a ram's horn ? " These are the cheeseparers of 
scholarship — mere triflers, who turn their microscopes 
upon the jot and tittle, while heedless of the revelation 
that glows and lightens around them. They waste 
their privilege, like Charles II, who busied himself in 
sticking pins through moths and butterflies, while 
Dutch William and his fleet were sailing up the 
Thames to capture his crown. 

Let us address ourselves to the solemn truth. The 
drama of destiny is before us. We shall best arrive 
at a proper apprehension of the Judgment if we view 
it through the metaphors of Scripture. What, then, 
are the accessories of that day ? 

I. The Trumpet. What does it mean ? Resurrec- 
tion. "For, behold, I show you a mystery ; we 
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall 



THE GREAT DAY. 45 

sound, and the dead shall be raised." It is the 
reveille of the sleeping multitude; to some like a 
Tyrolean wake-song, to others a tocsin of doom. 
"The earth and the sea shall give up their dead. " 
The dust of those who sleep in all graveyards — dust 
from the unknown mountain paths, dust from the 
coral crypts of mid-ocean — all shall reassemble and 
come forth to judgment. Adam and Eve will be 
there ; the antediluvians, patriarchs and prophets; 
Pilate and the rabbis of the Sanhedrin, the noble 
army of martyrs; saints and sinners of all ages; our 
soldiers who fell in the trenches before Santiago — 
all there ; and you and I among them. 

But how can these things be ? The earth is a vast 
cemetery. The very dust that blows along our 
streets is dust of the dead. Nevertheless with God 
all things are possible ; nothing is too hard for him. 
Shall he who originally created man by a fiat be 
unable to restore his ashes, though scattered to the 
winds ? In A. D. 117, in the persecution under Marcus 
Aurelius, a long procession of Christian martyrs was 
brought to the stake. When the holocaust was over, 
the emperor caused their ashes to be thrown on the 
waters of the Rhone, which would carry them to the 
sea, saying, " Let us see if the God of the Christians 
can restore these to life!" But who art thou that 
opposest thyself to the Almighty ? Thou dost err, 
not knowing the power of God. At the sound of 
the trumpet all shall awake and stand before him. 

II. The Throne; the great white throne. What does 
it mean ? The rounding-up of history. This is the 
vision that Daniel saw in a vision upon his bed : the 
winds of heaven strove upon the sea, and four great 



46 THE GREAT DAY. 

beasts came up, diverse one from another; a lion 
with eagle's wings, a bear with a carcass between its 
jaws, a winged leopard, and a nondescript, terrible 
and strong exceedingly, with iron teeth and monstrous 
feet of power. These were the great powers — Baby- 
lonia, Medo-Persia, Macedonia and Rome. One by 
one they vanished, and a throne was set in heaven, 
and one came like unto the Son of Man, to whom 
was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that 
all people should serve him. This is the parable of 
history. Its consummation is the great white throne. 
Look to your eyes ! 

" The head that once was crowned with thorns 
Is crowned with glory now." 

The Princess Wilhelmina of Holland was recently 
enthroned with demonstrations of almost unparalleled 
splendor. But how paltry are such earthly coronations 
in comparison with that of the glorified Son of Man ! 
He shall take his place upon the throne as Judge of 
nations and of every one of the children of men. 

Great God, what do I see and hear? 

The end of things created ; 
The Judge of all mankind appear 

On clouds of glory seated. 
The trumpet sounds, the graves restore 
The dead whom they contained before ! 

Prepare, my soul, to meet him. 

III. The Books. The books shall be opened as 
the basis of the final adjudication. What are they? 

(i) The Book of Life. This is the roster of saints. 
It is called, " The Lamb's Book of Life," because it 
contains those only who are washed in his blood. 
The gate of heaven bears the legend: ' There shall in 



THE GREAT DAY. 47 

no wise enter here anything that defileth, neither 
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie; but 
they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." 
Here is the momentous question: Is my name written 
there ? 

(2) The Book of Remembrance. This was written 
before the Lord for them that feared him and thought 
upon his name (Mai. 3, 16). Our words and actions 
and very thoughts are recorded here. We live before 
the all-seeing Eye and speak as into a phonograph 
which treasures all for the final reckoning. And 
when the scroll shall be unrolled before us, our mem- 
ories shall affirm the record: "Thou didst it," or 
"Thou didst it not." 

(3) The Book of Judgment. This is the Lord's 
Ledger, in which all balances are drawn. By this 
his vindication shall be made clear as the noon-day. 
In view of its revelations the lost and saved alike 
shall exclaim, "The judgments of the Lord are true 
and righteous altogether! " In the light of this final 
clearance it will be seen that God makes no mistakes 
and that the strange providences of the earthly life 
were in full accord with equity. In the pages of this 
Book of Judgment there is one deed which will shine 
resplendent above all, to wit, the acceptance of re- 
demption in the blood of Jesus Christ. For faith in 
his gospel is the only saving work ; as it is written, 
"This is the work of God that ye believe on him 
whom he hath sent." 

Luther relates, in one of his letters, that the great 
adversary came to him in a dream, saying, " I have 
looked into the Book of Judgment and have seen the 
black record of thy sins." As the accuser enumer- 



48 THE GREAT DAY. 

ated them, the dreamer was overwhelmed with 
despair. Then he looked to God in prayer and 
answered, " I, too, have gazed into the Book of Judg- 
ment, and, as thou sayest, my sins are all recorded 
there ; but I saw one entry to my credit which thou 
hast overlooked ; namely, ' The blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth this man from all sin.' " 

IV. And then y Separation. The fisher draws his net 
to shore, saving the good and casting the worthless 
back into the sea. The vinedresser with his pruning 
knife enters the vineyard, sparing the living branches 
and cutting away the worthless for the flames. The 
shepherd with his crook divides the sheep from the 
goats — the sheep on the right side and the goats on 
the left. There are but two sides ; there is no mid- 
dle ground. To these the Lord says, "Come, ye 
blessed! " and the gates of heaven open before them. 
To those, " Depart, I never knew you! " There they 
go to "their own place." Where that place is, it 
matters not ; we know it is afar from God. The outer 
darkness is exile from him. No more to behold His 
face; no more to hear the message of grace — this is 
fire unquenchable. We speak of lost souls; but 
indeed the sorrow is not that the soul itself is lost, 
but that it has lost God. 

V. And this disposition of things is final. We hear 
in certain quarters of a "larger hope," by which is 
meant the possibility of restoration after death. This 
"larger hope" is not in the Book. We find there 
" atones ton aionon," which all the torturing of eager 
scholars cannot twist into aught but "forever and 
ever." And there is the "great gulf fixed;" fixed 
and bridgeless forever. There too is the crystalliza- 



THE GREAT DAY. 49 

tion of character at the dead line: " He that is unjust, 
let him be unjust still; he that is filthy, let him be 
filthy still; he that is holy, let him be holy still; and 
he that is righteous, let him be righteous still." The 
eternal punishment of the incorrigibly wicked is not 
because of divine ordinance, but on account of the 
inevitable fixity of character. The twelve gates of 
heaven shall never be shut; but souls that dwell in 
the outer darkness, having wasted their probation 
and stereotyped their characters in habitual sin, must 
be forever indisposed to enter in; since, in truth, 
heaven would to them be more painful than hell. 
Thus neither in Scripture nor in reason is there room 
for the " larger hope." Be not deceived; whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. In the place 
where the tree falleth, there shall it be. 

What then ? Our great duty is Preparation. The 
King of Persia called his grand vizier and courtiers, 
and asked of them, "What condition in life is most 
to be deplored ? " One answered, "A friendless old 
age"; another, "Poverty"; still another, "To be 
bedridden in hopeless pain." But the grand vizier 
said, "It is to pass through life unmindful of the 
future, and suddenly to be called unprepared before 
the judgment-seat of God." 

A wise preparation for eternity must be twofold. 
On the one hand, pardon of sin. No man who has 
refused redemption in Christ can stand with the re- 
deemed in the Great Day. One thing can never enter 
the Kingdom of Heaven ; to wit, an unforgiven sin. 
All who have traveled among the petty states of Con- 
tinental Europe will remember the vexations attend- 
ant on the search for contraband goods. No man 



50 THE GREAT DAY. 

can cross the border line that separates between time 
and eternity and enter Canaan with an unforgiven 
sin. But why should he ? Behold the Christ up- 
lifted and the pierced hands stretched out! Hearken 
to the voice of mercy: " Come now, let us reason 
together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be as scar- 
let, they shall be as white as snow; though they be 
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." My friends, 
how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, 
so free, so plain, so glorious ? And what excuse can 
a man make if he appear without this garment at the 
marriage of the King's Son ? 

And then a holy and consistent life. This is impossible 
until we have "done the first works." No man can 
serve God with the record of the mislived past pursu- 
ing him. It is like a prisoner's ball and chain. Get 
rid of it by faith in Jesus Christ; and then proceed 
to live. Live as becometh those who have gratefully 
aceepted the heavenly grace. Follow close in the 
footsteps of Jesus, whose ye are and whom ye serve. 
Do your duty every hour of every day and fear not! 

In 1780 a strange darkness overspread New Eng- 
land; it is known in history as "The Dark Day." 
The Legislature of Connecticut was in session at 
Hartford and the members were seized with panic, 
thinking that the Judgment was at hand. The 
president of the assembly said, "Gentlemen, if this 
is not the Great Day we are foolishly alarmed ; if it 
is, we cannot be better found than in the discharge 
of duty. I ask, therefore, that candles may be lighted 
and brought in." Such is the wise method of life. 
If we have committed our salvation to Christ, and 
consecrated our lives to him, let us borrow no trouble, 



THE GREAT DAY. 5 1 

give way to no apprehension, but attend to present 
duty and watch. Aye, ever watch ; for we know not 
at what hour the Son of Man cometh. Let your door 
be on the latch; let your lamps be trimmed and 
burning. It may be that he shall come at evening, 
or at the cock-crow, or in the morning; and blessed 
are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, 
shall find watching. 



PETER'S FALL. 

"And when he thought thereon, he wept."— Mark 14, 72. 

On the night when Jesus was apprehended in the 
garden, there was a panic among his friends ; they all 
forsook him and fled. Peter following afar off came 
to the High Priests palace, entered and stood by 
the fire in the open court. The maid at the wicket 
looking intently at him said, " Thou also wast with 
Jesus." He replied, " I know not what thou sayest." 
Presently one asked, "Art not thou one of his 
disciples?" He denied, saying, "I am not." And 
later still one of the company, a friend of Malchus 
whom Peter had wounded in the garden, said, " Of 
a truth this fellow also was with him." Then he 
began to curse and to swear, lapsing into the bil- 
lingsgate of his earlier life, protesting vehemently, 
"I know not the man!" 

All four of the Evangelists relate this incident, but 
in different ways. Matthew, the publican, gives us 
a matter-of-fact statement, as passionless as an official 
tax-list. Luke, the beloved physician, enters some- 
what more into particulars, as if making a diagnosis 
of the case; he alone mentions the intentness with 
which the damsel peered into Peter's face ; he alone 

(52) 



PETER S FALL. S3 

says, "The Lord turned and looked upon Peter." 
John, the apostle of charity and Peter's friend, relates 
the occurrence as briefly as possible, omitting its 
most harrowing details and making no mention what- 
ever of the profanity. But Mark, who was Peter's 
personal companion and probably wrote under his 
immediate dictation, recounts all. His account is in 
the nature of an autographical confession ; its frank- 
ness reminds us of what Cromwell said to the court 
painter; " Portray me," said he, "scars and all." 

It is a sad story, and we search in vain for extenu- 
ating circumstances. Bring it before any jury of 
tried men and true, and their verdict would be 
" Guilty," without a recommendation to mercy. The 
case is aggravated by the fact that Peter had proba- 
bly a deeper insight than any of his companions into 
the personality of Jesus; it was he who had witnessed 
the good confession, "Thou art the Christ, the son 
of the living God." He was one of the chosen 
three who were received into the inner place of the 
Lord's confidence. He had been with Jesus on the 
Mount of Transfiguration; had seen the homespun 
garments of the Nazarene flutter aside, revealing his 
royal purple. Still further, Christ had admonished 
him : " Satan hath desired to have thee that he might 
sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that 
thy faith fail not." In view of such considerations 
it would appear that the offense could scarcely have 
been worse. He had been forewarned, should have 
been forearmed, and knew that Christ was praying 
for him. 

How, then, did it happen ? The inquiry is impor- 
tant; since we are all exposed to similar temptation 



54 PETER S FALL. 

and liable to deny our Lord. Happy is the Christian 
who has never said, by word or action, " I know him 
not." 

I. The fall of Peter was primarily due to thought- 
lessness. He was an impulsive man. We call him 
"blundering Peter." On that memorable night 
when Jesus girt himself with a towel and, with 
basin in hand, went about to wash his disciples* feet, 
he came to Peter and, lo! a mutiny. "Thou shalt 
never wash my feet! "he cried. " If I wash thee 
not," said Jesus, " thou hast no part with me." Then, 
without an instant's hesitation, he sped from one 
blunder to another, exclaiming, "Lord, not my feet 
only, but my hands and my head also." Thus, after 
his custom, he spoke first and thought afterward. 
But, alas! we who live in glass houses should be slow 
to throw stones at him. 

Here is our common fault. We invest our funds 
in losing ventures for want of thought. We vote the 
wrong ticket on election day for want of thought. 
We alienate our friends, give way to ill temper at 
home and trouble the neighborhood, for want of 
thought. We fall into evil habits and indulge our- 
selves until they bind us as with adamantine chains, 
for want of thought. We run with the multitude to 
do evil, waste our best privileges and golden oppor- 
tunities, and reject the overtures of divine mercy, for 
want of thought. The blast of the judgment trumpet 
startles us in the midst of a heedless career and we 
stand before the great assize with no answer to the 
long indictment but this, " I did not think." It is a 
child's excuse. O men and women made in God's 
likeness and hastening to eternity, it is our business 



PETERS FALL. 55 

to think. Here are three words for the guidance of 
earnest people in the face of duty and responsibility, 
Stop and think! For indeed an ounce of prevention is 
always worth a pound of cure. 

II. Self-confidence also had much to do with Peter's 
fall. Just before the crucifixion Jesus had said to his 
disciples, "All ye shall be offended because of me 
this night; for it is written, ' I will smite the shepherd 
and the sheep shall be scattered.' " But Peter said, 
11 Though all men shall be offended because of thee, 
yet will I never be offended." And when Jesus con- 
tinued, "Verily I say unto thee that this night before 
the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice," he pro- 
tested the more vehemently, "Though I should die 
with thee, yet will I not deny thee! " 

" Beware of Peter's word, 

Nor confidently say, 
1 1 never will deny my Lord,' 
But, ' Grant I never may.'" 

A few years ago it was my privilege to welcome 
into the fellowship of the church a young man who 
had been plucked as a brand from the burning. He 
was a rough diamond like Peter, and very confident 
in his own strength. "Do you think," I asked, 
"that you will be able to hold out?" His answer 
might have been Peter's own; "I assure you that 
whenever I set out to accomplish anything I get there 
with both feet." It is safe to say that his subsequent 
experience has taught him humility and the need of 
dependence on divine help. "Let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall." 

He is a wise man who knows his own limitations; 
who knows also the craft and power of his adversary; 



56 peter's fall. 

and who knows above all the sustaining grace of God. 
Pride goeth before a fall. I will look unto the hills 
from whence cometh my help! "We wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and 
powers and world-rulers of darkness. ,, Blessed is 
the man who confronts temptation as David went to 
meet the Philistine champion, saying, " Thou comest 
to me with sword and spear but I come to thee in 
the name of the Lord of hosts! " Our strength is in 
a sense of utter dependence. Let our prayer be, 
" O Lord, hold thou me up." 

III. It should be observed, furthermore, that 
Peter's temptation found him at the ebb tide of 
devotion. It may be that his sensibilities were 
dulled by previous days and nights of anxiety and 
foreboding. In any case the record sadly says, " He 
followed Jesus afar off." He could hear in the dis- 
tance the outcries of the rabble who were leading his 
Lord to judgment, could see their flaming torches; 
and he went skulking in the rear. 

The word of the Master is, " If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and 
follow me." So, then, it is one thing to come after 
him, and another to follow him. How shall we fol- 
low him ? As a sheep follows a shepherd ? Aye; but 
the silly sheep nibbling by the way may lag behind 
and be lost ; and the shepherd must needs go out 
and seek until he find it. As a child follows its 
mother? Aye; but the child plucking flowers and 
chasing butterflies may awake to sudden fright and 
bewilderment, and the mother must go seeking after 
it. Nay, rather, let us follow Christ as a tourist fol- 
lows his guide along the Alpine heights; roped fast 



PETERS FALL. 57 

to him, safe in his guide's safety, falling only when 
he falls. If we are given over to doubts, if we lack 
assurance, if we are averse to duty, if we find our- 
selves disheartened, if the fine edge of our devotion 
is dulled, it is because we have severed the vital bond. 
Come closer, friend, and follow in his steps. Enter 
into such sympathetic union with him that, like 
Roland Hill, you may say: 

"So close is my friendship with Jesus, I find, 
He can't go to heaven and leave me behind." 

IV. And while we are inquiring the causes of 
Peter's fall, we must not omit his evil companion- 
ship, He stood in the open court with the soldiers; it 
was a chill night and they had kindled a fire; "and 
he sat with the servants and warmed himself by 
the fire. ,, 

A Scotch woman commenting on this incident said 
quaintly, "He had nae business among the flunkeys. " 
It is not possible, however, to avoid association with 
the enemies of Christ. We must mingle with them 
more or less closely on the street, in business life, 
in society and everywhere. But one thing is pos- 
sible; that is, to avoid warming ourselves at their 
fire. "Be not thou partaker of their evil deeds." 
We must be in the world; but we need not be of it. 

John was as near to the enemies of Jesus as was 
Peter that night. He was in the judgment hall with 
scribes and soldiers all about him ; but, fortunately 
for John, he was wholly out of sympathy with them : 
his heart was with the prisoner at the bar. Not so 
Peter; he was with the enemies of Christ and 
desired to be accounted one of them. Evil associa- 



58 Peter's fall. 

tions corrupt good morals as well as good manners. 
We cannot help our environment always, but by 
divine help we can keep ourselves above it. 

In my judgment, the most unworthy piece of 
statuary in our city, — a city distinguished for its 
public exhibit of ignoble art, — is that of William E. 
Dodge in Herald Square. This statue is unspeak- 
ably awkward and feeble. Not so its original. He 
was a robust and erect man. Being in attendance at 
a banquet at Fortress Monroe where wine was served, 
he dared to be singular in turning down his glass. 
He resigned his membership in the Union League 
because it provided a bar for the sale of intoxicating 
drinks. He withdrew from directorship in three 
railroads because they insisted on running Sunday 
trains. Here was a man connected with almost all 
the great enterprises of our metropolis. He could 
not avoid his association with irreligious people ; but 
he declined to warm his hands at their fire. We 
should do likewise. " Be ye not conformed to this 
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of 
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and 
perfect and acceptable will of God." 

V. But back of all Peter's faults was arrant cow- 
ardice. He fell before the pointed finger of a maid- 
servant. O the poltroon, put to rout by a pointed 
finger! Had it been a leveled spear, he might have 
braved it; for, indeed, no weapon is fiercer than ridi- 
cule. We blanch and tremble before it. 

We are not in a position to deal hardly with this 
man. There are joints in every harness. In the 
stress of temptation we all need to " screw our cour- 
age to the sticking place." Napoleon, whom the 



PETER S FALL. 



59 



terrors of the fiercest battle-field could not move, was 
smitten with dismay by the sound of a mouse nibbling 
in the wall. I recently asked a non-commissioned 
officer of the Rough Riders if he was sensible of fear 
in the assault on San Juan. He replied, "I can't 
speak for others; but as for myself I was scared stiff. 
We threw ourselves down under a tempest of leaden 
hail, and just then I saw the colored troops sweeping 
past singing a camp-meeting hymn. I heard one of 
them, as a shell burst overhead, cry, ' No use, Mister 
Shell, no use ! We's gwine to reach de top ! * Then 
I heard the command, ' Forward ! ' And the next I 
knew I was standing by the blockhouse with a col- 
ored man on either side of me." It is thus that victo- 
ries are won. O, for the inspiration of the battle's 
heat! O, for a clear vision of the white plume of our 
Henry of Navarre ! O, for a fear-dispelling hope of 
triumph! 

The story of Peter does not end with his downfall. 
There is a glorious sequel. No sooner had he uttered 
the fateful words of denial than the cock crew; and 
never did chanticleer carry such a message to the 
heart of man. Then Peter lifting up his eyes, saw 
Jesus yonder in the judgment hall; and the Lord 
turned and looked upon him. It was a look of 
reproach and infinite tenderness of love. And he 
"went out and wept bitterly. ,, Then came three 
days of shame and self-reproach. He wandered alone 
in his bitter sorrow. At night he awoke from troubled 
dreams to hear himself saying, "I never knew him!" 
At length one came saying, "The Master is dead; 
come to the upper-room and weep with us." But 
he could not. "Leave me to my shame," he said. 



60 Peter's fall. 

Then another said, " Jesus is risen and hath sent a 
message to thee." But the nightmare of his sin was 
still upon him. 

One morning in the twilight he was with his com- 
panions in the fishing boat, when a lone figure was 
seen walking on the shore. They whispered among 
themselves, " It is the Lord." Peter could not wait. 
In a passion of repentant love he threw off his fish- 
er's coat and sprang into the water; and a moment 
later he stood dripping before his Lord. " Simon, 
son of Jonas [alas, his old name!], lovest thou me ? " 
"Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." And 
< again, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" 
" Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Then 
a third time, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " 
And Peter said, "Lord, thou knowest all things — 
my sin, my shame, my remorse, my penitence — and 
thou knowest that I love thee ! " Thus he was restored 
to the apostolate. And from that time he never 
blushed to own his Lord. He earned his knighthood 
as the "man of rock." He stood before kings, met 
persecution with a courageous front, became a 
familiar acquaintance of scourge and prison damp, 
braved the terrors and weariness of missionary toil, 
and at length went through the gates of Rome to 
martyrdom. A moment later as he entered on his 
heavenly reward, we may believe that to the gracious 
word of welcome he replied, "Now, Lord, thou 
knowest that I love thee! " 

But, perhaps, friend, you have no interest in this 
narrative. Ah, happy man! Have you never fallen 
from grace? Have you never been silent when the 
name of the Master was blasphemed ? Have you 



PETER'S FALL. 6 1 

cast no reproach upon the character of Jesus by 
inconsistent walk and conversation ? Have you had 
no occasion to chide yourself for base ingratitude ? 
Alas! how have we all denied and grieved him by 
conformity to the fashions of a wicked world, by 
neglect of duty, by indulgence in sin! Let us re- 
turn to our first love. Let the past suffice for luke- 
warmness and cowardice and worldliness. Let us 
come close to our Master, follow in his steps, be true 
to our conviction and faithful unto death ; that so 
we may receive the crown of life. If we have sinned 
as Peter sinned, let us make quite sure that we have 
repented as he did ; and that we may meet our Lord 
with his avowal at the last, ' ' Thou knowest that I 
love thee! " 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, 
Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; when I have a con- 
venient season, I will call for thee."— Acts. 24, 25. 

The man trembled, and well he might. He desired 
entertainment, but not such as was here provided for 
him. He was a worn-out epicure who, if we may trust 
the chronicles, had swung around the circle of pleasure 
and surfeited his soul. A happy thought now oc- 
curred to him. He had among his prisoners a fol- 
lower of the crucified Nazarene who was famed for 
logic and eloquence; him would Felix summon to 
display his powers in the judgment hall. So Paul 
was brought and required to speak " concerning the 
faith in Christ. " 

What should he say ? He was a man of mean pres- 
ence, dim-eyed, stoop-shouldered and loaded with 
chains. On the one hand Caution whispered to him, 
" Take heed how you offend this magistrate;" on the 
other, Conscience said, "Quit you like a man!" 
Caution said, " Curry favor with him by a little harm- 
less flattery;" Conscience whispered, "No fear nor 
favor now! Deliver your message as an ambassador 
of Christ. Bring this libertine to his knees; make 
him cringe before God! " 

Then Paul began to speak. His sermon was under 
(62) 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 6$ 

three heads : First, righteousness. And as Felix listened 
he must have seemed to hear voices from above crying, 
"Holy, holy, holy! " and another from within, "Thou 
art a guilty man! " Second, temperance j rather, con- 
tinence. Here the man changed color; for his shame- 
less vices were matter of common fame. He looked 
into the face of Drusilla, the third of his unlawful 
queens, and tried to smile. And the preacher, heedless 
of his confusion went right on. Third, judgment to 
come. Then the eyes of Felix fell and his courage failed 
him. The scene was like that in Belshazzar's palace 
when an unseen hand wrote, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin 
along the wall. And still the preacher went merci- 
lessly on. He ' ' reasoned " of these verities ; there was 
no ranting or fierce objurgation; but logic glowing 
and irresistible. And Felix moved uneasily; his color 
changed; he trembled. 

Now is his opportunity. The truth has smitten to 
his heart, to his conscience, to the marrow of his 
bones. What will he do? He opens his lips. Will 
he echo the words of the Philippian jailer, "What 
shall I do to be saved? " Will he beat upon his guilty 
breast, like the publican, crying, "God be merciful 
to me a sinner " ? If so, there is mercy on the instant 
for him. He is not far from the kingdom of God. 
Oh, if he will but summon his resolution now; if he 
will but "screw his courage to the sticking point"! 
God is so ready to forgive. The gates of a better 
life are open to Felix; and the world may yet revere 
him as a just and gracious man. The supreme 
moment is at hand. What shall be its issue? Life 
or death? He speaks: "Go thy way for this time; 
when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. " 



64 HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

" To each man's life there comes a time supreme, 
One day, one night, one morning or one noon, 
One freighted hour, one moment opportune, 
One rift through which sublime fulfilments gleam, 
One space when fate goes tiding with the stream, 
One Once in balance twixt Too Late, Too Soon, 
And ready for the passing instant's boon 
To tip in favor of uncertain beam. 
Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, 

Knows also how to watch and work, and stand 
On Life's broad deck alert, and at the prow 
To seize the passing moment, big with fate, 
From opportunity's extended hand, 
When the great clock of destiny strikes NOW ! " 

The story of Felix was written for our admonition. 
God grant that like an arrow it may smite between 
the joints of some man's harness here. It is a porten- 
tous thing for an hour of opportunity to come and go. 
Yours is at hand. What will you do with it ? Let us 
inquire the reasons for the default of Felix at this 
juncture ; for it is probable that his excuses and subter- 
fuges were such as are common among us. 

I. He would have said, "I wish to know more 
about this new religion. One must not be precipi- 
tate in a matter of uch consequence. I will send 
for this prisoner again and make further investiga- 
tion. " 

Observe how he deceived himself. He knew 
enough, and he knew that he knew enough, for the 
purpose in hand. It was not necessary that he 
should be a philosopher or acquainted with the deep 
problems of theology in order to accept Christ as his 
deliverer from sin. A man need not be a botanist, 
like Linnaeus, to detect the perfume of the lily or 
see God's name on its white vesture. He need not be 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 65 

an expert in astronomy, like Kepler or Galileo, to 
feel the deep lesson of the starry dome: " When I 
consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, what is 
man that thou art mindful of him ? " 

The essential facts of religion are very clear; as it 
is written, " An highway shall be there and a way; 
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err 
therein." Felix knew sin; felt it in his heart and 
conscience; was aware that retribution must follow 
it. He knew that he was bound to die, and after 
death the judgment. He knew that Jesus had died 
upon the cross, bearing the world's sin ; and he had 
heard the statement, " He that believeth hath ever- 
lasting life. " Thus he was as familiar as we are with 
these essential facts of the Christian religion. All 
that God asks of any man is that he shall bring his 
life up to the full measure of his light. 

II. As a further reason for the postponement of his 
decision, Felix would probably have said that he must 
first relieve his mind of distracting cares. The office 
of procurator was no sinecure. It was no easy mat- 
ter to look after the interests of the turbulent Jews. 
A considerable correspondence must be carried on 
with Rome. Felix was indeed an exceedingly busy 
man. He must clear his docket of pending cases 
before he could give serious attention to religion. 

There are many busy people who thus delude them- 
selves. The cares of this world crowd religion to the 
wall. Clerks and capitalists, professional men and 
handicraftsmen, all plead alike the pressure of busi- 
ness. A child asked her mother, "Are you going to 
heaven?" "Yes, my dear, I hope so." — "Then, Mam- 
ma, I must be going too; else it will be very, very 



66 HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

lonely for you." — " But why, dear? Your father will 
be there." — "No, Mamma," she replied, "he can't 
possibly leave the store." It was a juvenile para- 
phrase of the Tares and Wheat. 

We are naturally so averse to a just consideration 
of the claims of religion that we ask but a very little 
subterfuge. The folly of iEsop's Simpleton, who 
stood by the flowing brook, saying, "If this flows on 
it must empty itself, and I shall go over dry-shod" is 
obvious. Why are we so slow to perceive the infinitely 
greater folly of one who postpones the serious busi- 
ness of eternity until the world shall give him respite 
for it ? No business can be so important as the recon- 
ciliation of the soul with an offended God; all else 
can wait. The world gives no man leisure for 
consideration of the great verities. Business never 
lets up. 

III. It is probable, also, that the heart of Felix was 
set upon the further accumulation of wealth. His 
office was very lucrative. The farmers of his prov- 
ince were required to pay tribute on every sheaf of 
wheat and basket of olives. The taxation of those 
days was an elaborate system of blackmail ; not so far 
reaching, perhaps, as that which prevails on Manhat- 
tan Island, but still immensely profitable to this pro- 
curator. No doubt he hoped that, in a little while, 
he should have acquired sufficient to warrant his 
retirement ; when he might perhaps endow some 
institution of learning or benevolence, and then at 
his leisure make his peace with God. 

The sophism is apparent, — yet multitudes are ex- 
cusing themselves in this manner for rejecting Christ. 
To all such he himself has this to say : ' ' The ground of 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 67 

a certain rich man brought forth plentifully ; and he thought 
within himself saying : What shall I do; because I have 
no room where to bestow my fruits ? And he said, This 
will I do; I will pull down my barns and build greater ', 
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods; and I 
will say to my soul y Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But 
God said unto him, Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall 
be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which 
thou hast provided '?" An eviction! An eviction with- 
out postponement or appeal. A just eviction, too; 
since the tenant had misused his trust. "So is he 
that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward 
God." 

IV. Felix, if candid, would probably have confessed 
that he wished to enjoy the pleasures of the world a 
little longer. He had a magnificent palace, with 
luxurious facilities for enjoying life. To his mind 
religion was a melancholy affair, to be considered by 
those who were burdened with age or alarmed by the 
ominous pangs of disease. He would surely repent 
before he died. His decision was by no means a 
refusal, merely a postponement. 

His reasoning was plausible but false. For religion 
is not melancholy. At God's right hand are pleas- 
ures forevermore. No moment in human life is so 
ecstatic as that in which a man realizes his deliver- 
ance from sin: " O happy day that fixed my choice 
on thee, my Saviour and my God!" There are sea- 
sons in the trysting-place when we sit at the king's 
table and feast on fat things and wine upon the lees. 
And beyond all words is the sweet anticipation of 
eternity: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 



68 HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

have entered into the heart of man the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him." What 
are earth's revels when compared with these? 

" For pleasures are like poppies spread: 
You pluck the flower, the bloom is shed." 

It is said that workmen who mine for copper in 
Cornwall under the sea, can always hear the roll of 
the ocean above them ; but there are times when the 
raging tempest drives them in terror from their tasks. 
Thus do the ungodly make merry within sound of 
the trumpet blast of judgment. They dare not stop 
to think. O! to sell heaven for such passing joy is a 
fool's bargain. It was the wisest of men who said, 
"of laughter It is mad, and of mirth What doeth 
it?" 

V. The hope of political promotion was doubtless 
a further consideration to the mind of Felix. He 
was ambitious. He had been an efficient magistrate 
as magistrates went in those days. His unpopularity 
with the Jews was greatly in his favor at Rome. 
Who knew but he might yet be Emperor ? Stranger 
things had happened. But a confession of Jesus of 
Nazareth would certainly ruin his prospects; it would 
offend his influential friends. So, though his duty 
seemed clear, he could not undertake to do it just 
now. 

Can we afford to put off the great decision for such 
considerations? "What shall it profit a man, if he 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " A 
pleasure yacht was sailing off the coast of Nova 
Scotia, when an iceberg was sighted. It was sug- 
gested that, since the day was fair and the sea quiet, 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 69 

the passengers might disembark upon it. It was a 
hazardous enterprise ; but they succeeded in climbing 
the sides of the crystal mass, and remained there 
until sunset. No sooner were they safe aboard, how- 
ever, than the iceberg, as if by magic, fell asunder 
and dissolved. Awestruck they saw its domes and 
pinnacles, crimsoned by the setting sun, disappear 
like the fabric of a vision and leave not a wrack be- 
hind. So will pass away the glory of this world ; its 
thrones and dynasties, its honors and emoluments, 
all vanish with life's setting sun. 

One thing only endures; to wit, Character. All 
other ambitions are vain and frivolous when compared 
with the living of a holy and useful life. Scepters 
will fall and royal purple will shine no more than 
beggars' rags. He is the wise man, therefore, whose 
ambition is to win character, to wield influence and 
to make life tell. 

VI. But back of all the excuses which Felix made 
to his own conscience was one which he would 
not have avowed: namely, his love of sin. By his 
side sat Drusilla, a famous beauty and a conspicuous 
figure in the gallantries of the time, though but 
eighteen years old. She had been the wife of Azizus 
the king of Emesa, from whom the solicitations of 
Felix had won her. He cringed and trembled now 
beneath the unanswerable logic of Paul ; but, alas ! he 
gazed at Drusilla; and he could not give her up! 

Let us be honest with ourselves. Back of all our 
subterfuges lies our devotion to sin. It is this that 
prompts the rejection of Christ. Probe deep enough 
and you will surely find some darling sin. You may 
hate yourself for loving sin ; and still you love it. You 



70 HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

fondle it like a tiger's cub ; knowing full well that pres- 
ently it will taste blood and get the better of you. 
The sin that smiles most sweetly on us is our master; 
it lays an ever stronger hold upon us with the pass- 
ing days. And for this we are "condemned already." 
We do not wait for judgment; sentence has been 
passed upon us. As Manton says, "Whoso delayeth 
his repentance, leaveth his soul in pawn to the evil 
one, saying in effect, * Here, Satan, keep my soul; if 
I fetch it not again by such a day, 'tis thine forever.' ' 

The dangers of delay under such circumstances 
are manifest, (i) Death may come in an hour when 
we think not. (2) Or, if not this, then habit may 
fasten itself upon us beyond all deliverance ; for con- 
science is like a blacksmith's arm, which in his appren- 
ticeship shrank from the heat and quivered with pain ; 
but now he bares it to the shoulder and unshrinking 
thrusts it into a shower of sparks. (3) Or — more 
fatal danger still — the Spirit may cease to strive with 
us. God is patient, but he will not be mocked. His 
word is plain: " My Spirit shall not always strive 
with men." 

VII. There is one reason for delay which Felix 
could not urge; to wit, that he wanted more feeling. 
He "trembled." The iron had gone into his soul. 

You say: " I do not feel a vivid conviction of sin, 
I can stand at Calvary and hear the dropping of blood 
and shed no tear. I do not turn pale at thought of 
the Judgment day." Ah but, friend, there was a 
time when you did. There was a time, years ago, 
when a sermon like this would have deeply moved 
you ; when you lay awake at night fearful lest the 
daybreak should find you unprepared at the great 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 7 1 

assize. It cost you a struggle to resist, in those days. 
You were almost persuaded ; now you are indifferent. 
You lie down to sleep with no fear or scruple. What 
does this mean ? Have you grieved God's Spirit ? 
Have you quenched the vital spark ? Not yet ; else you 
would not be listening to these words. You are still 
on mercy's ground ; but, I pray you, do not trifle now. 

And indeed this is not a matter of feeling but of 
duty. When you are reminded of an honest debt, 
you do not plead want of feeling. You know that 
it behooves you to meet your obligation; and you 
meet it like an honest man. 

Are you awaiting a convenient season ? When 
will it be ? To-morrow ? Nay, that were to offer a 
Spanish plea, Manana! Yet the Spaniards know 
their own infirmity, for they have a proverb, "The 
road of By-and-By leads to the house of Never." 
To-morrow, my friend, is God's; to-day is yours. 
"To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
hearts." This is the day of salvation. — Or are you 
thinking that the convenient season will be the hour 
of death? Surely not that. God can save, indeed, 
in articulo mortis j but the man who reckons on this 
takes fearful chances. "A dying thief was saved, so 
that none might despair; but only one, so that none 
might ever presume." 

Of all excuses this is surely the basest and most 
cowardly. To think of raking one's field and flinging 
the riddlings at the altar! To calculate calmly on 
saving out the wheat of life and then casting the 
worthless chaff before the heavenly throne! To burn 
one's candle to the socket and then at the last to fling 
the snuff into the face of God ! 



>]2 HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

No, friend, your one convenient season is just now. 
No future hour has any place in the economy of sal- 
vation. All God's promises center in this moment, 
for you. The Orientals tell of a man who watched a 
thousand years sleeplessly before the gates of Para- 
dise in hope that they might open to admit him; 
then for a moment he dozed and awoke to find that 
the gates had opened and shut. It is a parable of 
opportunity. You stand just now before the open 
gates. I present to you the gospel of forgiveness 
and eternal life. All the glories of a blessed eternity 
are yours for the taking, just now. The pierced 
hands of the Saviour are stretched out; if you will 
but signify your acceptance of his overtures, he 
stands ready to say, " Thy sins be forgiven thee." 

So far as we know, the impression made upon the 
mind of Felix wholly passed away. He remained 
two years in the palace at Caesarea and was then 
deposed for malversation of office. Meanwhile he had 
many opportunities of seeing his distinguished pris- 
oner and hearing further of the religion of Christ; 
but we are left to believe that he never trembled 
again when he heard him. So this man passes from 
view, a victim of the Fabian policy. His inaction 
was his ruin. You stand where he stood on that 
momentous day, when Paul preached to him of 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. 
What will you do ? 

I have passed along the street late in the afternoon 
and seen the people streaming from the theatre 
doors. They had witnessed a tragedy or a melo- 
drama, and had probably been moved to tears. Out 
of the artificial passion they now returned to the 



HOW FELIX LOST HIS OPPORTUNITY. 73 

world ; and conversed as cheerfully as if heart-break- 
ing dramas were unknown. Their impressions had 
vanished like a dream. In like manner you will be 
going from this presence in a few moments. Shall 
it be to the old life of habitual sin and indifference, 
or to the higher life of salvation in Christ ? It is for 
you to say. Ab hoc momento pendet ceternitas. The 
issues of the endless future may depend upon this 
hour. Here is the offer of life; will you receive it? 
Here is the line that separates between sin and 
pardon ; one step will cross it. Like Felix you open 
your lips to speak : What is it you say? " Not now "? 
or, "I will"? 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 

44 Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth."— Judges 16, 6. 

There are no accidents in history. Coincidences 
are providences. The Weaver sits at the loom casting 
the shuttle to and fro, weaving in the sun and shadow, 
and making all things work together in the beauty 
of the seamless robe wherewith he purposes to clothe 
himself when the last thread is cut. Time and 
eternity are warp and woof. Causes and events are 
made to blend as complementary colors. There are 
no chances; times and men come together by divine 
predetermination. The clock strikes, and the hero 
answers, " Here am I." 

The Church is enveloped in darkness. God wants 
a man ; and the monk of Wittenberg, unbinding his 
rosary, sets forth to nail his Theses on the chapel 
door. — The tocsin of Saint Bartholomew's appeals to 
heaven. God wants a man ; and afar in the Nether- 
lands a silent champion girds himself for the occa- 
sion. — Over-populated Europe needs more room; 
who shall find it ? The Santa Maria sets sail for the 
far Indies and the man of destiny stands at her prow 
gazing into the misty West. Thus we observe an 
unvarying law of demand and supply; and God pre- 
sides over all. 

(74) 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 75 

Now to the circumstances of our context. The 
glory had departed from Israel. Fires were kindled 
everywhere on the high places in honor of Baal. Up 
from the southern plains came the Philistines in their 
rattling war chariots, devastating the fields, plunder- 
ing the villages ; and there was no resistance. The 
banners of God's people were in the dust. The Ark 
of the Covenant was in the hands of the enemy. Was 
there no eye to pity, no arm to save ? Had God for- 
gotten to be gracious ? 

At this juncture, in the house of Manoah at Zorah, 
a child was born in whom centered a peculiar interest. 
He was the child of prophecy. His name, Samson, 
"the sunlike," is an intimation of a joyous parental 
welcome: it suggests also the benediction of the 
infinite Source of light and power. 

I. The Secret of Power. The mission of Samson 
had been indicated in the annunciation of his birth; 
to wit, " he should begin to deliver Israel out of the 
hand of the Philistines. " This was the reason of his 
life. There is no life without a reason; though 
many, failing to discover this, live and die unreason- 
ably. Our power is measured by our loyalty to 
God's purpose concerning us. 

The lad was set apart at birth as a Nazirite. The 
Nazirites were persons who regarded themselves as 
divinely called to special tasks and shaped their 
habits of life accordingly. They were pledged to 
self-abnegation, the putting down of every personal 
feeling and ambition. They abstained from the fruit 
of the vine, not merely as it came foaming from the 
winepress or sparkled in the cup, but in every form 
"from the husk to the kernel." They were bound 



J 6 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

to observe the Levitical law with the utmost scrupu- 
losity ; they must refrain from kissing the lips of a 
dead mother for fear of ceremonial defilement, and 
from mourning at her grave lest they should compro- 
mise their vow. The badge of this austere brother- 
hood was their unshorn hair, which hung over their 
shoulders in seven braided locks. 

The physical strength of Samson was a super- 
natural gift. His sturdy limbs, broad shoulders and 
muscles like twisted cord, were a special endowment 
for his work. In his youth he met a lion in the way 
and rent its jaws asunder as if it had been a kid. 
This was but an earnest of larger deeds of prowess ; 
as when he should meet the enemy at Ramath-Lehi 
and single-handed smite them hip and thigh; then 
shout a rude alliterative battle-song : i 'Asses on asses ! 
Masses on masses! Heaps upon heaps! A thousand 
men! " Or, as when he should lift the gates of Gaza 
from their hinges and carry them off in grim derision 
to a neighboring hilltop, laughing back, "See how 
bars and bolts restrain me! " All this while his locks 
were unshorn, his duty remembered, his vow at the 
center of his heart. 

But his endowment was more than physical ; as it 
is written, "The Spirit of the Lord strove with him." 
Here is the true enduement of power; God helps 
those who are mindful of their duty. In the home 
at Zorah the growing lad was reminded by his mother 
of the angelic annunciation: " My son, be faithful to 
the task which the Lord hath ordained for thee. " He 
sat upon his father's knee and heard of Jephthah's 
expeditions among the villages from Aroer to Min- 
nith. The eyes of the youth flashed fire, the moving 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 77 

of a great purpose was within him ; he longed for the 
opportunity to show himself a man. 

Let the terms of his appointment be noted; he 
was not to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Phil- 
istines, only "to begin to deliver Israel." The man 
was fitted by nature and training for this work. He 
was, indeed, in many points a semi-barbarian. In 
him we observe a strange mingling of weakness and 
strength ; of questionable valor and still more ques- 
tionable virtue. But he was the man for the time; 
and preeminently the man for his task. He was to 
enkindle strife, like John Brown of Osawatomie. He 
was to open the ranks of the enemy like Arnold 
Winkelried, at mortal peril to himself. This required 
a willful, passionate, capricious nature. He must 
provoke the enemy to deeds of insufferable violence, 
and then with a tocsin cry of revenge awaken the 
sleeping courage of Israel. I see him on the way 
down to Eshtaol, trespassing on the fields, embroil- 
ing the people in strife, sowing dragon's teeth which 
were to germinate and develop better men than he. 

A strong man is ever a man with a mission and 
loyal to it. Saul of Tarsus was an inquisitor up to 
the hour when the great light shone upon him. Then, 
realizing that his occupation was gone, as one who 
could not live without a definite work, he straightway 
required of his new Master, "What wilt thou have 
me to do ? " All servants of Christ are appointed to 
special tasks. Alas for the Christian who gives to the 
sordid world the energies which should be conse- 
crated to the Kingdom of God ! He lives like an 
eagle tethered to its stake; its wings drooping, its 
eyes blinking at the sun. O Christian, find thy work 



78 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

and address thyself to it ! Rend thy chain and let 
the divineness within thee mount aloft to kindle its 
eyes at the full midday beam ! 

II. The Loss of Power. The fall of a mighty soul 
into moral debility is usually through a process of 
gradual decline. The sun is eclipsed not by the in- 
stant veiling of its brightness; an arc of twilight 
creeps over its verge and, encroaching more and more, 
brings on at last a very blackness of darkness. So is 
the enfeeblement of a strong man. 

It began in Samson's case with certain journeys 
down to Timnath. He saw there a woman of the 
daughters of the Philistines and was captured by her 
fair face. His temptation came in at Eye-gate. In 
vain did his parents remonstate, "Is there never a 
woman among the daughters of thy brethren ? " It 
was enough for Samson that he fancied her. "Get 
her for me," he cried; "she pleaseth me well." As 
time passed, the serious business of life was forgotten. 
The beguilements of the fair Philistine were woven 
about him like the bands of Gulliver in Lilliput. It 
is always perilous to trifle with sin. We find in the 
district messenger-boy an inexhaustible source of 
pleasantry. He is sent upon an errand posthaste. 
As he turns the corner the bell of a fire-engine arrests 
his steps. A little further on, a group of lads are 
tossing jack-stones; and our youthful ambassador, 
agape with interest, hands in pockets, lingers to look 
on. And meanwhile his message waits. Who are 
we however that we should make merry at the lad's 
expense ? Are we not also sent on an ambassage, and 
a vastly more important one? Has not the word 
been clearly spoken, " Go ye; declare the Evangel! " 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 79 

Does not the King's business require haste ? Yet we 
stand in Vanity Fair, charmed with sweet music and 
the glint of tinkling feet; or, mayhap, we mingle 
with the self-seeking multitude and lose ourselves 
in sordid cares. And our message, meanwhile ? 
Behold, the world lieth in darkness and the shadow 
of death, still waiting for it. 

The story of Samson's fall is full of warning. He 
laid his head in the lap of the temptress and rose up 
shorn of his manly strength. Not all at once, how- 
ever. Observe how he played with the mystic sym- 
bol of his calling. ' i Tell me, " said Delilah, * c wherein 
thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou might- 
est be bound to afflict thee." 

And Samson said, "If they bind me with seven 
green withes, then shall I be weak as another 
man." 

He slept and was bound with the green withes ; and 
she cried, " The Philistines be upon thee!" Then 
he awoke and brake the withes as tow that is scorched 
in the fire. 

And the temptress said," Behold, thou hast mocked 
me. Tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest 
be bound." 

"If I be bound with new ropes that never were 
used, then shall I be weak and be as another man." 

He slept again and was bound with new ropes. 
"The Philistines be upon thee! " she cried. And he 
brake the ropes like a thread from his arms. 

And she said, more persuasively still, "Thou hast 
mocked and deceived me: tell me now wherewith 
thou mightest be bound." 

He approached perilously near his great secret as 



80 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

he answered, " If thou weavest my seven braids with 
the web." 

And again he slept; and his locks were woven in 
the loom. Then she cried, " The Philistines be upon 
thee!" and he awoke and, laughing, walked away 
with the beam and the web. 

And she poutingly urged: " How canst thou say, 
I love thee ? Thy heart is not with me. Thou hast 
mocked me thrice and hast not told me wherein thy 
great strength lieth." Thus she pressed him daily 
with her words until his soul was grievously vexed. 

Then he told her all: " If I be shaven, my strength 
will go from me." Once more he slept and the lords 
of the Philistines were in waiting. His locks were 
shorn and his strength went from him. Again the 
cry, " The Philistines be upon thee! " 

And he awoke and said, " I will go out as at other 
times and shake myself." And he wist not that the 
Lord was departed from him ! 

He wist not. Aye, there is the sorrow of it. The 
most insidious diseases are those which give no pain. 
Their victims in the midst of business or pleasure 
swoon and are gone. So does a sin indulged creep, 
like an ambushed assassin, nearer and nearer to the 
center of life. Habit is like an adder warmed in the 
bosom : it need smite but once. O that God would 
enable some of us to look backward and perceive our 
unconscious loss of influence. Has the fine edge of 
your moral sense worn off ? Is your conscience, 
once as sensitive as the palm of an infant's hand, now 
seared as with a hot iron ? These are ominous signs 
of spiritual declension. We started out at the begin- 
ning of our Christian life with a determination to be 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 8 1 

strong. We coquetted with sin and, behold, we are 
weak like other men. 

III. The Recovery of Power. Blessed be God, all is 
not lost! The man who has forgotten his vow, for- 
sworn his duty, and denied his Lord, shall yet have 
an opportunity of grace. "Return unto me, saith 
the Lord, and I will have mercy upon you." 

In the prison house of Gaza sits the champion of 
Israel ; a captive, grinding like a woman at the mill. 
His eyes are out. He sits in open view: that the 
people may make sport of him. The fair women of 
Philistia pass by and deride him ; but he sees them 
not. Temptation enters no more at Eye-gate. In 
his enforced solitude he remembers. He recalls the 
prophecy of his birth: " He shall begin to deliver 
Israel out of the, hand of the Philistines." Hebe- 
moans his wasted strength, his squandered privilege. 
He is alone in the surging crowd; alone with God. 
His consecration vow is before his blind eyes in 
letters of fire. O that he might prove himself a 
Nazirite again before he dies! His enemies have not 
perceived that his locks are growing again. They 
grow as he renews his vow. His affliction is not in 
vain ; he remembers the riddle he once gave to his 
enemies; " Out of the eater is come forth meat, and 
out of the strong is come forth sweetness." Thus in 
the secret place of his repentant heart he renews his 
fealty to God. 

The closing scene is pathetic beyond words. The 
festival of Dagon is at hand. The Philistines are 
gathering to offer a great sacrifice to their god. The 
blind giant of Israel is brought to the temple where 
the assembling multitude may behold him. He 



82 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

bears their mockery in silence; and the Spirit of God 
moves within him. His heart is no longer with the 
past; in that fierce hour he renews his consecration. 
He will yet, with God's help, " begin to deliver Israel 
out of the hand of the Philistines." He hears 
the footfall and murmur of thousands gathering in 
the temple. The galleries are full. His hour of 
triumph has come. He stretches forth his hands, 
feeling for the great pillars. The muscles of his iron 
frame are tense and swollen. He lifts his scarred 
face with its eyeless sockets toward heaven. His 
lips move; he is making his last prayer, "O God, 
avenge me!" There is a trembling of the pillars, a 
momentary hush, then cries of the fear-stricken and 
the dying, as with a crash the temple falls, burying 
in its ruins the blind captive and his persecutors. 
And from the silence of that ruin forevermore may 
be heard a voice, " Return from thy backslidings, O 
Israel, and I will restore thee! Return and I will 
return unto thee! " 

In the eleventh of Hebrews, the inspired roll-call 
of heroes, it is written that Samson was "by faith 
made strong out of weakness." Faith is the vital 
bond of our union with God ! It holds us fast to duty ; 
it bring us back from wandering, makes all things 
possible to us. We are never strong until we are 
weak, because then the power of God rests upon 
us. 

Here is our lesson: No man is without a " calling." 
Each has his "vocation " in the kingdom of Christ. 
And the secret of a successful life is in the concen- 
tration of energy on one's mission. There is a world 
of wisdom in the Cottar's words: 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 8$ 

"An' O be sure to fear the Lord alway, 

An' mind your duty duly morn an' night! 
Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray, 
Implore his counsel an' assisting might. 
They never seek in vain who seek the Lord aright." 

It has been said that while a tallow candle cannot 
be thrown through the wall of a tent, it can be shot 
through an oaken plank. The reason is easy to see. 
Here is a concentration of power. The man who 
lives according to the divine purpose makes a sure 
success of life. No arrow is wasted that speeds 
toward the mark. 

A young Englishman, fifty years ago or there- 
abouts, was moved to carry the gospel to Terra del 
Fuego. The divine call was clear. This was his 
appointed task ; he must accomplish it. He spent 
his limited fortune in fitting out an expedition ; only 
to be repulsed by the natives and driven back a penni- 
less, unsuccessful but still resolute man. He urged 
his plea upon the churches and sailed again. He was 
now permitted to land ; he pitched his tent among 
the people and prepared for work. His companions 
died and he was driven again by the superstitious 
natives to the shelter of his boat. At length in the 
shadow of a torn sail he lay dying. Not a soul had 
been given for his hire. Was his life wasted, then ? 
In his last moments he wrote these words, to be found 
long afterwards: " My little boat is a very Bethel to 
my soul. Asleep or awake, I am happier than tongue 
can tell. I am starving, yet I neither hunger nor 
thirst. I feed on hidden manna and drink at the 
King's well. I am not disappointed ; for I remember 
this : ' One soweth and another reapeth. ' " A failure ? 



84 THE SECRET OF POWER. 

A wasted life ? Nay ; let the thousands of converts, 
who go each year, in that far away country, to water 
with their tears the grave of Allen Gardiner pass 
their verdict upon it. No life is futile whose strength 
is spent in pursuance of a divine call. 

Let the past suffice us for the squandering of power. 
God calls us to return from the dissipations of Vanity 
Fair to our appointed work. Let us hear and heed 
forevermore this "high calling" of God. Our place 
is among the athletes who stand at the crimson line. 
Let us so run that we may obtain the crown. "This 
one thing I do ; forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This one 
thing I do! This one thing I do! ^ 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

" If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, 
to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave 
unto him ; then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and 
ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place 
whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours : from the wilderness 
and Lebanon, from the river Euphrates even unto the uttermost sea shall your 
coast be."— Deut. n, 22-25. 

In the Dark Ages of ancient history, when truth 
and righteousness seemed in danger of perishing from 
the earth, it pleased God to select a people who 
should keep the oracles and hand down the Messianic 
secret to coming times. In furtherance of his plan a 
little strip of territory on the eastern shore of the 
Mediterranean was set apart for the habitation of 
this people. It was singularly well adapted to this 
purpose, being separated by almost impassable bar- 
riers from the surrounding country. It w r as bounded 
on the south by the Arabian desert, on the north by 
the Lebanon range, on the west by the Great Sea and 
on the east by the trans-Jordanic cliffs. Thus the 
Israelites were set apart as a hermit nation. At the 
same time they were in closest touch with the world's 
enterprise. The caravan routes which connected the 
three great centers of civilization, to wit, Egypt on 
the south, Assyria on the east and Greece on the 
northwest, crossed each other just here. So the land 

(85) 



86 AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

of Israel, while protected by its seclusion from the 
contaminating influences of paganism, was peculiarly 
fitted to be the depositary and radiating center of the 
religion of the true God. 

In the Dark Ages of more recent history, when the 
world was threatened with a universal prevalence of 
wrong and error, it pleased God to set apart for the 
remnant of his oppressed people a barbaric region in 
the distant West. At this point we observe a striking 
coincidence. Our country is not unlike Palestine, 
in the seclusion afforded by its impassable sea walls; 
while it lies precisely at the focal point of universal 
commerce. Is this an indication that God would 
have us foster our power for the ultimate benefit of 
the race ? A French artist conceived the thought of 
a colossal image of " Liberty Enlightening the 
World." He accomplished his task, and the ques- 
tion arose, Where shall the statue be placed ? By 
the banks of the Seine ? In sight of the July Col- 
umn, which commemorates the horrors of the Bas- 
tile ? In sight of the Garden of the Tuileries and 
the Palace of the Louvre, where the Commune vented 
its wrath ? In sight of the Arc de Triomphe and the 
golden dome of the Invalides, under which rest the 
ashes of Napoleon the Scourge ? Nay, not there ! 
The place chosen is at the portals of the western con- 
tinent. There stands the colossal figure, uplifting a 
lighted torch, more eloquent of great achievement 
than even its illustrious maker imagined. It is not 
Liberty but the Evangel enlightening the nations of 
the Earth. 

The Lord Jesus wants our country; we read this in the 
romantic story of its discovery and settlement. It is an 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 87 

open question who discovered America. Was it the 
Phoenicians, who, as Strabo says, effected a land- 
ing about 400 B.C. on the mysterious Island of 
Atlantis in the Western Sea ? In any case, they 
made no settlement, better things being in store for 
our continent than that the fires of Baal and Astarte, 
the furies of ancient Israel, should be kindled on its 
altars. Shall we then accord the honors of discovery 
to Eric the Red who, about iooo a.d., landed on our 
northern coasts? He also was unable to effect a 
settlement. His hardy Norsemen were driven away, 
the very elements conspiring against the gods of 
Walhalla, and the hammer of Thor. Was Columbus 
then the real discoverer of America? On October 7, 
1492, the Santa Maria was making straight for the 
coasts of Florida, when a flock of paroquets, heading 
to the southwest, crossed her bows. The course of 
the vessel was changed accordingly and her crew 
disembarked on the Bahamas. So, God be praised! 
the civilization of Spain based on the religion of Rome 
was averted. The belt of power in the Western hemi- 
sphere was reserved for a better race and purer religion. 
In 1609 a truce was signed between Holland and 
Spain; and the liberated energies of the Dutch Prot- 
estants sought a new outlet. The Half Moon 
sailed, — Hendrik Hudson, skipper, — and a trading 
and trapping post was established on Manhattan 
Island. A little later the Pilgrims, — who being ex- 
iled from their native country had made a protracted 
sojourn in Holland, coming into close contact with 
her spirit of ecclesiastical and civil freedom, — set 
forth in the Mayflower and in due time landed at 
Plymouth. These were the people, the Chosen 



88 AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

People, for whom God had reserved the Western 
World and whom he had prepared to occupy it. 

What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine, 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 

They sought a faith's pure shrine. 
Aye, call it holy ground, 

The ground whereon they trod ; 
They left unstained what there they found, 

Freedom to worship God ! 

The Lord Jesus wants our country for himself; we read 
it in the strange record of our territorial expansion. The 
Thirteen Colonies, as originally banded together for 
mutual protection and defense under the Declaration 
of Independence, represented about eight hundred 
thousand square miles of territory; but they had 
no outlook toward the West, no southern seaboard 
and no commercial right in the Mississippi, the great 
waterway of the continent. 

The first step toward an important enlargement was 
in the Louisiana Purchase, which was effected by 
Jefferson in 1803. This gave us the Mississippi River 
and doubled the national area. The purchase could 
not have been made but for the financial straits of 
Napoleon. In closing the bargain he said, " I have 
strengthened the power of a nation which, as a mari- 
time rival, shall yet humble the pride of older nations 
beyond the sea." In 1845 Texas was annexed. This 
was done under the leadership of Calhoun and for 
the extension of slavery. It is not an easy matter to 
defend it. 

In 1846 the Northwestern Territory, previously held 
by England and America jointly, passed into our 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 89 

hands. The story of the Oregon Trail, the encroach- 
ments of the Hudson Bay Company, the controversy 
of the frontiersmen with the watchword, "Fifty-four- 
forty or fight ! " are matters of common fame. In 
all our history there is no more interesting episode 
than the ride of the missionary, Marcus Whitman, 
from Walla Walla to Santa Fe, three months over 
the mountains, through falling snow and wintry 
blasts, and thence to Washington; where President 
Tyler was persuaded to negotiate a compromise with 
the British Government, by which our Northwestern 
boundary was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel. 

In 1848, largely through the enterprise of Fremont, 
"the Pathfinder, ,, we secured our possessions on the 
Pacific Coast. The less said about this and other 
results of the Mexican War the better for our national 
honor; since these acquisitions were made according 
to the "good old plan, that he may take who has 
the power, and he may keep who can." 

In 1867 Alaska was purchased from Russia; adding 
six hundred thousand square miles. At the time, the 
wisdom of this purchase was seriously questioned; 
but the vast development of Alaskan treasure has 
abundantly vindicated it. 

We thus find ourselves in possession of a territory 
of three and one-half millions of square miles; and 
are just now facing the question of a further addi- 
tion. We do not want Cuba, Porto Rico or the Philip- 
pines; but the question is, Can we avoid taking them 
under our care ? We are in a dilemma. On the one 
hand we dare not restore them to the tender mercies 
of Spain; on the other we cannot leave them as a 
bone of contention among the great powers of Europe. 



90 AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

We are in the position of a Christian man whom I 
knew. He had a family and responsibilities to the 
full measure of his resources. One day a friendless 
waif appeared at his door asking to be taken in. 
There was the problem of the cruse and the barrel ; 
but the waif stood hollow-cheeked and shivering at 
the threshold ; there was nothing to be done but to 
adopt him. God save us, as a nation, from the pride 
of conquest; but may he make us willing to assume 
any responsibility whatsoever in the interest of broad 
civilization and humanity, which he may impose 
upon us. 

The Lord Jesus wants our country j it looks like manifest 
destiny ; we read it in the startling development of our 
national power. This power centers in the Christian 
Church as really as the Tabernacle stood in the midst 
of the Jewish camp. 

It is affirmed on statistical authority that there are 
twenty-seven millions of religious people in our 
country! What a suggestion of power and responsi- 
bility! For " power to the last atom is responsi- 
bility." 

One of the surprises of our recent history is the 
discovery that we are the richest nation on earth. 
Our wealth is estimated at not less than fifty thousand 
millions. Ponder that for a moment in view of the 
responsibilities which it involves. Who hold this 
treasure ? Much the larger part of it is in the hands 
of the twenty-seven millions of religious people. 
They represent the thrifty, cultured and prosperous 
class. And what are they doing with this treasure ? 
Has the Church increased her influence commensu- 
rately with her wealth ? Nobody thinks so. 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 9 1 

An eminent cardinal was once walking arm in arm 
with a barefoot friar: he looked on his ruby ring, his 
purple robe, his splendid mansion, the gilded dome 
of his cathedral, and proudly said, "The time has 
passed, brother, when the Church must say as Peter 
and John did, ' Silver and gold have I none/" 
"Aye," replied his barefoot comrade, "and mayhap, 
my lord cardinal, the time has passed when she can 
say to paralytics, as Peter and John did, ' In the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and 
walk!'" 

We have recently discovered, also, to our amaze- 
ment, that we are among the great military nations. 
We have, indeed, no standing army or fleet worth 
mentioning; but we have what is better, an indefinite 
reserve. Pompey said, "I can stamp my foot and 
summon an army." We have proven that a word 
from Washington can call an irresistible host from 
the farm and workshop and marshal them on the 
high places of the field. We have demonstrated that 
by the subsidizing of our merchant marine and mere 
pleasure craft we can improvise a fleet stronger than 
the Spanish Armada. But, better than all, we have 
shown the world that war can be waged in the 
interest of peace. The dominating influence in our 
recent conflict was the gospel of the humanities. 
Over our armies and fleets waved the banner of 
the Prince of Peace. 

Yet another of our surprises is this : our forebodings 
with reference to immigration have been vain. It has 
been supposed that the inpouring of heterogeneous 
peoples might involve us in anarchy or revolution. 
We were afraid our hopper was receiving more than 



92 AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

the mill could grind into a wholesome grist. In fact, 
however, there is no more homogeneous nation than 
our own. And we have no better citizens than those 
who have come to us from among the oppressed regions 
of the earth. This is a fact for God's people to con- 
template. It is as when the people came to Pentecost ; 
"Parthians, Medes and Elamites and dwellers in 
Mesopotamia, strangers of Rome, Jews and prose- 
lytes, Cretes and Arabians." What shall be done with 
them ? Ours is indeed the pentecostal nation. Let 
us lift the prayer that God's Spirit may rest upon 
these multitudes in cloven tongues as of fire, that 
they may be filled with the influence of the gospel of 
Christ; that so, as the Passover pilgrims of old car- 
ried back the Evangel to their homes, these also may 
be radiating influences of the gospel of Christ. 

The Lord Jesus wants our country for himself; in the light 
of that statement we may read our denominational responsibil- 
ity. The Reformed Church is the oldest evangelical 
body in America, having been organized on Manhattan 
Island not earlier than 1614, and not later than 1628 
when Domine Michaelius was installed as minister of 
Saint Nicholas Church. The fact that we are one of 
the smaller denominations is due measurably to our 
own default, and particularly to the fact that the 
Dutch people were in possession of this island only 
for a period of about fifty years, being crowded aside 
by the English occupation in 1664, since when they 
have not been a segregated factor in our national 
life. 

We are proud of our honorable history, but danger 
lies that way. We cannot turn the wheels with the 
waters gone by. Forgetting the past, let us reach 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 93 

out toward the things which are before. We are told 
the Spaniards have carried away the bones of Colum- 
bus from Havana. They are welcome to them. A 
living dog is better than a dead lion. Let the Dons 
dwell among the tombs. God give us the living 
genius of enterprise! Let us cherish all the honor- 
able memories, but remember that honor lies in 
consecration to present duty and future useful- 
ness. 

Our church is peculiarly adapted to present needs 
by reason of its historic loyalty to truth. It has 
stood like a rock amid the tempestuous swirl of con- 
troversy. It has been loyal to the faith once delivered 
to the saints, loyal to the historic landmarks of doc- 
trine, loyal to the revealed Word. It is written that 
our Lord, having compassion on the hungry multi- 
tudes, asked his disciples, u How many loaves have 
ye ?" They answered, " There is a lad here who has 
five in a basket. ,, These he took and, breaking them, 
said to his disciples, " Give ye them to eat." This is 
not to suggest that other denominations have not been 
as loyal and conservative as our own. But the time 
has come for'every lad with a basket to add his con- 
tribution for the feeding of the multitudes with living 
bread. 

O for the baptism of fire on our venerable church! 
Conservatism is an honor; but inertia is a shame. 
The Moravians tell of a missionary ship that sailed 
for Greenland a hundred years ago and was never 
heard of. She was caught somewhere among the 
ice-floes and failed to reach her destination. God 
save us from the guilt of arrested power; from fall- 
ing short of the work ordained for us ! 



94 AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 

He wants men; men and women dedicated to his 
work. "Say not, It is yet four months and then 
cometh the harvest. Lift up your eyes and see: the 
fields are already white. Pray ye the Lord of the 
harvest that he would send forth laborers into his 
harvest/' The flaming cross is on the hills. Where 
are the consecrated youth who shall respond ? Where 
are the mothers, Hannahs in Israel, who shall bring 
their children to the sanctuary and consecrate them 
to the Lord ? 

He wants money also. Yours? No, not a penny 
of it! If you have money that you can call your own, 
keep it. If, however, you have any of the Lord's 
money entrusted to your stewardship, then give him 
his own. Now is the time for Christian men and 
women to recognize their stewardship. Bis dat qui 
cito dat. The curse of our Christian civilization is 
unconsecrated wealth in Christian hands. The 
Scriptural word " covetousness " is pleonexia, which 
might be liberally rendered, "I will have more!" 
The sorrow of the situation is that the Church con- 
trols our national wealth and grips it as with a 
clenched fist. 

Let no follower of Christ suppose that he discharges 
his responsibility by promising to remember the 
missionary boards in his will. A man was recently 
caught in one of our leading homes in the very act of 
burglary. With his arms full of silver and jewels he 
started to run, but was obliged to drop everything in 
order to escape. So does many a wealthy man who 
professes to be a follower of Christ ; he keeps his treas- 
ure as his own, until the grim specter of Death pursues 
him; then perforce he drops the plunder: and men 



AMERICA FOR CHRIST. 95 

gather around it, saying, " Let us now read his Last 
Will and Testament. M 

But what the Lord wants above all is personal con- 
secration. Such appeals as this would be quite need- 
less, if we could but realize that we are not our own 
but are bought with a price, even the precious blood 
of Jesus as of a lamb without blemish and without 
spot. But, alas! we withhold ourselves so that he 
cannot reach or use us. A traveler in the East 
relates that, being suspicious of his Bedouin guards, 
he bought of his dragoman a musket for personal 
protection. At the first opportunity he tried the 
weapon, only to find that it would not go. He 
picked the flint; he primed it with powder in the 
pan; all in vain. At length he opened it at the 
breech and discovered that the wily Arab had rammed 
home a solid wad before pouring in the powder; so 
that the fire could not get through. Such is the effect 
of cherished sin or worldliness in a Christian life. It 
presents an impassable barrier to the influence of the 
Holy Spirit. The heavenly fire cannot penetrate it. 

The Lord Jesus wants our country for himself and he 
wants his people to deliver it to hi?n. He is waiting for 
us to lay it before his feet. We as individual 
Christians and as a denomination have tarried long 
enough. The immigrant ships are coming in ; they 
will not wait. The line of population moves toward 
the west at the startling rate of thirty miles a year; 
it will not wait. We have tarried in camp too long. 
The pillar of cloud is lifting from the tabernacle; it 
moves onward ! Shall we fall in with the cavalcade 
of Israel and go forward? Shall we make our influ- 
ence felt in the Conquest of America for Christ ? 



THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 

" At even my wife died, and I did in the morning as I was commanded."— 
Ezekiel 24, 18. 

The soul of Ezekiel burned with a passion of holy 
zeal. He lived at a critical time in the history of 
Israel. Truth and knowledge had perished from the 
way : the nation had gone into its dotage and must 
be taught in object lessons. This was Ezekiel's task. 
/ On one occasion he stood before the multitude with 
a tile on which was a rude sketch of the Holy City. 
Laying it on the ground, he cast up a mount and 
raised fortifications against it. This needed no ex- 
planation. Again he appeared with a chain in hand 
saying, "Thus saith the Lord, I will do unto the 
people after their way, and according to their deserts 
will I judge them.'' And again, he cut off his hair 
in the presence of the multitude, divided it into 
three portions, reserving a meager lock which he 
bound in the border of his skirts: and when the peo- 
ple asked, i ' What meaneth this ? " he replied, l ' Sword, 
famine and captivity. But a remnant shall be saved. " 
Thus he was the kindergartner of the prophets. His 
work was to admonish the recreant nation of ap- 
proaching disaster, and to this mission he gave him- 
self with an utter abandon of consecration. His 
attitude was fearless; his words were relentless as 

(96) 



THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 97 

fate; but the soul within him was overwhelmed with 
pity. The severest duty put upon him is recorded in 
our context: " And the Lord said, I will take away 
from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet 
thou shalt make no mourning for the dead." The 
character of the man is set forth in the sequel: "And 
at even my wife died, and I did in the morning as I 
was commanded." He made no outward sign of sor- 
row, uttered no moan, shed no tear; but, with covered 
head and sandaled feet, addressed himself to the 
business in hand. Thus, to Israel he taught the im- 
perativeness of duty. 

The same important truth was inculcated by our 
Lord when certain men came to him and expressed a 
desire to follow him. The first was an impulsive 
aspirant, who said, "Lord, I will follow thee whither- 
soever thou goest!" To him Jesus replied, "The 
foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, 
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." 
The next was a dilatory candidate, who said, " Lord, 
I will follow thee ; but suffer me first to go and bury 
my father." To him reply was made, " Let the dead 
bury their dead ; go thou and preach the kingdom of 
God." The last was a double-minded man, who 
said, "Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go 
and say farewell to my dear ones," and this was the 
stern rejoinder, " No man having put his hand to the 
plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of 
God." In other words the call to duty takes prece- 
dence of all. 

I. But What Is Duty ? Let the etymology of the 
word define it: Duty is debt; that is, the thing due. 
Due to whom ? To God. 



98 THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 

This repellent view of the matter is modified by 
the fact that the debt referred to is a debt of love. 
Duty is "love in action." If once I realize that all 
I have is of providence and grace — the breath in 
my nostrils, the bread on my table, kinship and 
friendship, remission of sin and the hope of heaven, 
— my service takes the form of the recognition of an 
honest debt, and the pleasure of my life will be to 
pay it. Service is still service, yet not servile but 
filial; for "the love of Christ constraineth " me. 
This was in the mind of Wordsworth when he wrote 
his apostrophe to duty : 

" Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear 
The Godhead's most benignant grace ; 
Nor know I anything so fair 
As the smile upon thy face." 

II. Here Is the Highest Motive of Life, A man is 
at his best when discharging his duty; that is, meet- 
ing his obligation to the good God who created and 
redeemed him. The possible motives of life are only 
three : — 

(1) Self-gratification. The world's trinity is live- 
lihood, pleasure and honor. He who pursues these 
enters into fellowship with the lower orders of life. 
An ambitious man is fellow to the lion that roars and 
ravages in order to be King of Beasts. The pleasure- 
seeker is fellow to the cheerful dog that moves from 
the chill of the creeping shadow and ever follows the 
sun. And he who devotes himself to a livelihood or 
"getting on in the world,'' is fellow to the horse that 
bears his burden or walks the weary treadmill for an 
evening meal of oats. 



THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 99 

(2) Altruism. God forbid that aught should be 
said against the doing of kindly deeds; for "though 
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass and 
a tinkling cymbal." Yet kindness, in the usual 
acceptation of the word, is by no means the greatest 
thing in the world. Everybody knows how poor 
4< Posty"in "Auld Lang Syne" ended his shiftless 
life by leaping into the water to save Mrs. Mac- 
fadyen's child; wherefore the author sent him to 
heaven straight. But why ? It was a splendid act, 
indeed ; but is any life so barren as to have no noble 
impulses ? In fact, such deeds are humane but not 
distinctly human; that is, they do not differentiate 
us from the lower orders. The dam cares for her 
litter. The hen shelters her brood under her wings 
when the hawk hovers in the air. I have seen a wild 
goose circle about for hours after its mate had been 
slain. No, we must look higher than this for the 
quality that separates man from all beneath and 
makes him akin with God. 

(3) Duty. Here we are at our best, because the 
law of our being controls us. A stone for falling, a 
flame for rising, a bird for the air and a fish for water; 
such is their nature. By the same token, a man for 
duty. In this he stands alone and singular. Of all 
living things he alone was made in the divine like- 
Mess; he alone has God's breath in his nostrils; he 
alone can ' ' think God's thoughts after him " ; he alone 
is burdened with moral responsibility, and he alone 
has power to distinguish betwixt the worse and better 
reason. Joseph Cook says: "If you please, sum up 
the globes as so much silver and the suns as so much 



IOO THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 

gold and cast the hosts of heaven as diamonds on a 
necklace into one scale, and if there is not there any 
part of the word Ought — if Ought is absent from the 
one scale and present in the other — up will go your 
scale laden with the universe as a crackling paper 
scroll is carried aloft in a conflagration ascending 
toward the stars. God is in the word Ought; and 
therefore it outweighs all but God." 

In the life of Duty, then, a man is at his noblest. 
Here he is meeting the obligations of his nature; 
feeling his way back to his original estate, working 
out the possibilities of his destiny. Here he becomes 
a participant of the divine life. 

" * What shall I do to be forever known?' 
* Thy duty ever ! ' 
4 This did full many who yet sleep all unknown/ 

1 Oh, never, never ! 
Thinkst thou, perchance, that they remain unknown 

Whom thou knowst not ? 
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown, 
Divine their lot.' " 

III. There is No Absolution from the Behest of Duty. 
It is aside from my present purpose to point out the 
spheres of personal obligation. Nor is this necessary. 
The farmer who owns a thousand acres in Dakota 
needs no fences nor landmarks to enable him to dis- 
tinguish his own field. A place is reserved in the 
divine economy for every man. The life of a shirker 
is a vast default. There is a portion of the temple 
wall unbuilt as yet; my friend, it awaits you. There 
is a shop where the tools lie unused on the bench; 
the door is open for you. There is a corner of the 
field untilled and overgrown with weeds; yours is 



THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. IOI 

the call to sow there and reap and garner for God. 
Alas for us! we know our duty and we do it not! 

And what vain excuses we offer; in what mean sub- 
terfuges we hide ourselves. "I want more light on 
the matter." Nay; rather, as Shaftesbury said to 
Locke, "You know too much; the want is not of 
knowledge but of will." God asks only that you 
shall live up to the measure of your light. Or do 
you say, " The obligation does not appeal to me"? 
that is, you want more feeling. But moods are for 
poets and lovers, not for plain servants like us. Duty 
is not a matter of sentiment, but of common honesty 
and common sense. Or, possibly, you are too pre- 
occupied, and waiting for leisure. Alas! the gift of 
a man's leisure is an affront to God. He asks no 
crippled lamb, but the firstlings of your flock. He 
wants not your superflux, but you. 

In some cases the default is due to discouragement. 
You set out bravely once, and failed. You ploughed, 
sowed, harrowed, and reaped not. So the disciples 
by the lake shore were resting on their oars in the 
early morning when Jesus came and said, " Launch 
out into the deep and let down your nets for a 
draught." One answered, "We have toiled all the 
night and taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word 
we will let down the net." And when they had 
done so, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. 
The word is for you, my disheartened friend. 
Launch out, take heart, strive again. You are respon- 
sible only for the effort: God for the results. Do 
your best, and he will be with you. 

There are others who under the shock of sudden 
grief or calamity have been stunned into a moral 



102 THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 

paralysis. I knew a devoted servant of Christ who, 
smitten thus, resigned his positions of church use- 
fulness saying, "I have no heart for anything but 
to be alone and weep." The word of Ezekiel is for 
such: "At even my wife died ; and in the morning 
I did as I was commanded." Our sorrows, how- 
ever deep and overwhelming, are relatively of slight 
moment in the economy of the eternal life. They 
are " light" at the heaviest, and "but for a moment " 
at the longest. 

A few evenings since, a poor woman of the 
town came into a concert hall on the Bowery 
while a dance was in progress, sat down at a 
table, leaned her face in her hands and died. 
The intrusion of the King of Terrors caused but 
a momentary hush. The woman was carried out 
and laid upon the pavement; then on went the dance. 
What is pain or trouble, what death itself, in our 
busy world ? The breaking of a heart, the wreck of 
a fortune, the toppling of a throne, — these are but 
ripples raised by the wind on the surface of an irre- 
sistible tide. Whatever happens, the world rolls on. 
Duty is clamorous, even at the gateway of God's 
Acre. We walk among our trials bewildered, as in a 
dream, but the world is larger than many graves and 
life than many heartaches. These are but for a 
moment, duty is forever. Let the man who sits 
mourning under the juniper tree heed the voice of 
reproof, "What doest thou here?" The work un- 
done, the wall unbuilt, the field untilled, the vintage 
untrodden, are calling us. The test of religion is to 
heed that imperious voice. Profession is but lip serv- 
ice ; work tells. There is no piety but applied piety. 



THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. I03 

Vows are but vagrant zephyrs; it is wind on the 
wires of the aeolian harp, in the bellows of the organ, 
on the keys of the flute, that makes the music of life. 

IV. Here too is the Secret of Happiness. Shirking is 
misery. The contented man is he who lives above 
circumstance, who realizes that there is no subterfuge 
from responsibility, who recognizes the imperative- 
ness of duty. 

The two great men of the Reformation were Luther 
and Erasmus. The latter, while preeminent for 
learning, was the victim of an incurable melancholia. 
The reason is not far to seek; it was he who said, "I 
am resolved to do my duty — as far as circumstances 
will permit." The life of Luther, on the other hand, 
was like a murmuring brook or a singing lark. And 
again the reason is not far to seek ; it was he who 
said, "Though there were as many devils at Worms 
as there are tiles upon the housetops, yet would I go 
there at the behest of duty." 

It maybe that, at the outset, duty is akin to drudg- 
ery; but drudgery loses its grim visage on closer 
acquaintance. An apple as it leaves the blossom 
turns its thought and spends its energies on growing 
big, heedless meanwhile of a puckery sourness and 
bitterness within ; but presently, having attained 
its necessary growth, it turns its attention to the 
making of succulent juices. Then, observing its rosy 
flush and sweetness, we say, " The apple is ripe." So 
it is with a consecrated life; the beauty of holiness is 
the result of a calm and normal expenditure of energy 
in the rigid discharge of duty day by day. The 
trudging pilgrim gains strength as he moves on, lean- 
ing on divine strength as on a staff and resting on a 



104 THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE. 

good conscience as on a soft pillow, until at length 
he catches sight of the glistening domes and pinna- 
cles of the heavenly city. In that supreme moment 
the past is forgotten in the renewal of strength. 
Like David, he " runs in the way of God's command- 
ment" and finishes his course with joy. Alas for one 
who knowing his duty refuses or neglects to perform 
it: but O the blessednesses of the man who honors 
his conscience by the way and hears his Lord's ap- 
proval at the last, " Well done, good servant! " 

Our Lord is our Exemplar. Duty was his watch- 
word. There was one great duty which he owed to 
himself as God. He had come into the world under 
a vow to accomplish the deliverance of men. Calvary 
was the goal toward which he "set his face stead- 
fastly." All his life was a journey to the cross. At 
length he came to Gethsemane; there his enemies 
found him. As they drew near with staves and lan- 
terns, he said "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth; I am he." 
There was never a moment of swerving from his 
task. As a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he 
opened not his mouth. Three mortal hours on Gol- 
gatha he drank the cup of the world's guilt to its bit- 
terest dregs ; then, crying, " It is finished ! " he yielded 
up the ghost. His was the path of duty. Take up 
your burden, friend, and follow him. Lay down no 
conditions, make no compromises, offer no excuses. 
Duty is ultimate. When conscience speaks, the last 
word is spoken. Meet your obligation as Christ met 
his; and count it your highest joy to meet him at the 
last, saying, "I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do. " 



DON'T WORRY. 

"Take therefore no thought."— Matt. 6, 34. 

The word " thought " is an archaism; its precise 
meaning is anxious thought. Luke gives us the para- 
phrase, ' ' Neither be ye of doubtful mind. " The figure 
is that of a ship in the offing rolling to and fro. Our 
religion should hold us steady; as an anchor to the 
soul, sure and steadfast, taking hold of that which is 
within the veil. 

What a world this would be if there were no fret, no 
worry, no anxiety ! We Americans are often reminded 
that this is our besetting sin. We are ever in a fever- 
ish haste. Our eyes are restless, brows wrinkled, 
nerves aquiver. We go through life like a train at 
full speed, stopping only to take water for more 
steam, to cool off hot boxes, or for repairs after an 
accident. It is little wonder that we break down or 
prematurely wear out. Our national maladies are 
insomnia and nervous debility. But Americans are 
not the only feverish folk ; the fault pertains to the 
whole race. Thackeray says, " When I was a boy, I 
wanted taffy; it cost a shilling and I hadn't one. 
Now I am a man; I have a shilling, but I don't want 
any taffy." It is safe to say, however, that he was 
still longing after the unattainable; in boyhood it 
was taffy ; later on, it was fame. 

(105) 



106 don't worry. 

Our Lord suggests a remedy. "Come with me 
into the fields," he says, " and observe how God cares 
for the world. Consider the lilies how they grow; 
they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say 
unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these. How much more shall he 
clothe you, O ye of little faith?" So let us stop 
awhile and allow the axles to cool while we sing: 

" Father, whate'er of earthly bliss 

Thy sov'reign will denies, 
Accepted at thy throne of grace, 

Let this petition rise: — 
Give me a calm, a thankful heart, 

From every murmur free; 
The blessings of thy grace impart, 

And make me live to thee." 

Our Lord, in advising against all anxious thought, 
offers no encouragement to improvidence. On the 
contrary, the Scriptures constantly enjoin a wise 
foresight and preparation for future need. "Go 
to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways and be 
wise." Our Lord, having fed the multitude, said to 
his disciples, " Gather up the fragments that remain, 
that nothing be lost. " It is every man's duty to lay 
by for a rainy day. Be prepared for contingencies. 
Insure your house; it may burn down. Insure your 
life ; there is no telling when you may die. Above 
all, get ready for eternity. If your sins are not 
forgiven, it is the part of wisdom to attend to that 
matter here and now. If your accounts are unbal- 
anced, balance them at once. To-day is yours, 
to-morrow is God's. He is a prudent man who is so 
guarded against all future possibilities that he can 



don't worry. 107 

say, as Paul did when he heard the footfall of the 
executioner near his door, " I am now ready to be 
offered; the time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the 
righteous judge will give me in that day." 

This is the lesson of the lilies. True, they do not 
toil; yet they are busy all the while. They take no 
anxious thought; yet they are ever preparing for the 
morrow. They fulfil the law of their being, assimi- 
lating air and sunshine and the fructifying elements 
of the soil, making ready thus to bloom in their 
season. They fold their leaves when the storm draws 
near, bow their heads meekly and wait until the clouds 
roll by. They work but do not worry. They are busy 
but never anxious. Here is the gist of the matter. 
Let us also abide in our places and rest in God. 

The word is, Take no anxious thought. About 
what ? About anything. Worry is the great hin- 
drance to success. He is a good workman who whis- 
tles at his bench. I have seen an old negro woman 
in the South carrying a burden on her head that 
would have bent me double. The secret was a per- 
fect poise. He who gets his burden just over his 
head, just above his conscience, just in the zenith of 
his heart — that is, in the precise line of spiritual 
gravity — will have no difficulty in bearing it. Our 
religion should be our strength. This was Paul's 
meaning when he said, " Be anxious for nothing, but 
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
giving let your requests be made known unto God." 
Let us cover the case. The common grounds of 



108 don't worry. 

worry are seven. And in all these our anxiety is 
groundless if we really believe in God. 

(i) Let us begin at the bottom: "Why take ye 
thought for Food and Raiment ? M Here is the universal 
occasion of worry. All honest people are striving 
for a livelihood. The men and women whom we 
meet, moving their lips as they hurry along the streets, 
are muttering, "Food and raiment." This is " the 
care of this world," which our Lord likened to weeds 
that choke the word. They vex, entangle, hamper 
the plough ; trip us up along the garden paths, crowd 
out better things and kill the fragrance and fruitful- 
ness of life. It is, indeed, the business of every man 
to earn a livelihood ; but, if we are in the kingdom 
of Christ, we must needs believe that, with a proper 
attention to industry and thrift, this will be provided 
for us. The argument of Christ just here is four- 
fold. First, God remembers all. Second, If he is 
mindful of birds and flowers, how much more shall 
he care for you ? Third, It is useless to worry; for 
"which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
to the measure of his life ? " And fourth, such anx- 
iety is unchristian; " for after all these things do the 
Gentiles seek." We are in the kingdom ; wherefore 
it devolves upon us to seek first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, with confidence that all lower 
and material necessities shall be added unto us. 

(2) Much of our worry is about Things that Cannot 
be Helped; such as irretrievable losses, incurable mal- 
adies, thorns in the flesh. The Stoics would say, 
" What can't be cured must be endured." But there 
is better comfort in our Christian philosophy. Take 
this: "All things work together for good to them 



DON T WORRY. 109 

that love God;" or this: "Our light affliction, which 
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ; " or this : ' ' Trust 
in the Lord and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the 
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 

God makes no mistakes. If we are groaning 
under some remediless trouble, he means that we 
shall let patience have her perfect work. A caged 
bird gains nothing by breaking its wings against the 
bars. Bide a wee and dinna weary. God knows all 
and he means all for the best. Luther says, "If 
thou hast a sorrow beyond thy healing, one thing 
thou knowest : God can give thee a sweet physical 
herb called patientia that will sustain thee. " In answer 
to Paul's prayer for deliverance came the word, "My 
grace is sufficient for thee." 

(3) And then, as to the Things that Never Happen. 
How grievously we suffer in anticipation of troubles 
that come not! We watch the gathering clouds and 
are sure that our plans for to-morrow will come to 
naught. We are alarmed by an ominous flush on our 
children's faces. We are apprehensive lest our over- 
eager creditors or our tardy debtors shall land us in 
bankruptcy. We are sure the coming election will 
go wrong. Thus we borrow trouble on trouble, for- 
getting what the Lord said : Sufficient unto the day 
is the evil thereof. 

" For human bodies are sic fools, 
For a' their colleges and schools, 
That when nae real ills perplex them, 
They mak' enow themsels to vex them." 

I wonder how Adam felt when he saw the first 
sunset. All day he rejoiced in the benignant light: 



IIO DON T WORRY. 

but now the great luminary sank nearer and nearer 
toward the west, the birds betook themselves to their 
perches, the twilight deepened into darkness, and 
silence was over all. No doubt he bade a sorrowful 
farewell to the vanishing orb of light. But with the 
next morning it rose in the east again, coming forth 
like a bridegroom from his chamber. So a kind 
Providence is ever putting us to shame in the dawn 
of bright mornings. Life has enough of real sorrow ; 
why shall we anticipate the future ? Let us hope for 
the best, and have faith in God. 

(4) But surely we have reason to be anxious with 
reference to our Personal Salvation ? Not at all. The 
way is perfectly clear. If we receive the Scriptures, 
there is one thing to do: " He that believeth in the 
Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." To believe is to 
accept Christ as our Saviour from sin. And then, 
" There is therefore now no more condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus." We have done our 
part and he will assuredly do his. There is nothing 
to gain by worrying about it. If we are ever in 
doubt, the reasonable thing to do is to get upon our 
knees and renew our surrender. And so again and 
again, as often as need be. " But can I hold out ?" 
No, indeed, you cannot. The question is not as to 
whether you can hold out, but whether God can. It 
is his grip, not ours, that secures us. His word is, 
" Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you"; 
and further, "No man shall pluck you out of my 
hand." It is better to look up than to look in; for 
our help cometh from the hills. I am not at all sure 
that I shall be able to stand: but "I know him in 
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 



DON T WORRY. Ill 

able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day. " 

(s) We are deeply concerned and anxious further- 
more, as to our Progress in the Christian Life. Are we 
growing duly in grace and in the knowledge of the 
truth ? This, also, is God's affair if we are wholly 
committed to him. The question is not of growth 
primarily, but of life. A marble statue cannot grow 
because the vital principle is not within it. A branch 
cut from the vine withers because the life current no 
longer flows through it. Life necessitates growth. 
We do not grow by trying to grow, but simply by 
growing in pursuance of law. A true Christian is a 
better man with each succeeding day, though he may 
not be aware of it. The very fact that he laments 
his shortcoming and feels an increasing desire for 
larger measures of spiritual power and wisdom, is 
proof of it. He who busies himself in the Master's 
work, need not fret about the deepening of his 
spiritual life. His path must be as the shining light 
that shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect 
day. 

The life principle is faith, which unites us with 
Christ. Faith has been likened to the gastric fluid, 
a wonderful solvent which separates and dissolves 
our food so that the body can appropriate and assim- 
ilate it. All our food is thus put under contribution 
to feed the blood and sinew and bone and marrow, 
and to further the development of the whole man. 
In like manner faith makes pain and pleasure, be- 
reavement and joy, success and disappointment, work 
together for our good. These are the spiritual diet 
which God prepares for us; but they "profit us 



112 DON T WORRY. 

nothing," as Paul says of the word, unless they be 
" mixed with faith " in us. 

(6) Still further, we wish and wonder and worry 
as to the Results of our Labor. A faithful Christian 
said recently, " I have been a teacher in the Sabbath 
School for thirty years ; and I do not know that I 
have ever brought a single soul to Christ." The 
prayer of Moses finds an echo in the heart of many 
a devoted servant, "O Lord, establish thou the 
work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our 
hands establish thou it ! " 

But pause and reflect. We are mere underlings. 
The work is God's. Paul may plant and Apollos 
may water, but God giveth the increase. Our 
responsibility ceases with the discharge of duty. He 
sends some into his field as ploughmen to break up 
the fallow ground ; like Adoniram Judson who labored 
for years with no apparent fruit. He sends others 
into the field to scatter the seed-wheat; like Ruther- 
ford who toiled long at Anworth and bemoaned his 
ill success. He sends others with sickle in hand to 
reap and gather into the garner; like Whitfield and 
Moody to whom a multitude of souls are given for 
their hire. But here is his definite assurance, "He 
that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together. " 
Meanwhile, let us have no undue solicitude, but 
rejoice in this: "My word shall not return unto me 
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and 
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 

The woman of Samaria after her conversation with 
Jesus left her water-pot at the well, and hastening 
into the city said to her friends and neighbors, 
" Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I 



DON T WORRY. 113 

did. Is not this the Messiah ? " This was her par- 
ticular work; and, having performed it, she is heard 
of no more. Time passed; and Philip the Evan- 
gelist came to Samaria and sowed the gospel there. 
A great revival followed : but just as the harvest grew 
yellow under his hand, Philip in turn was sent away; 
the angel of the Lord saying, ' 'Arise and go toward 
the desert." It must have been a grievous disap- 
pointment to him; but he arose and went. Then 
came Peter and John with sickle in hand and reaped 
the harvest. Theirs was the great honor among men ; 
but in heaven the unnamed woman, the evangelist 
and the two apostles rejoice together. 

Let all faithful workers be of good cheer. No 
labor is for naught, no prayer is unanswered, no holy 
purpose is wasted. Many a farmer who scatters the 
grain in June dies before September. But what mat- 
ters it ? All alike are serving the glory of God. And 
here is our comfort: " He that goeth forth and weep- 
eth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again 
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 

(7) Our last anxiety is with reference to the Con- 
version of the World. I recently attended a humani- 
tarian Congress where frequent expression was given 
to the thought that Society is going to the bad. For 
even a secular socialist to entertain that view, is sug- 
gestive of a most lamentable color blindness. But 
blue glasses are not for Christians. "Let those 
refuse to sing who never knew our God." The mel- 
ancholy view of human affairs which prevails in some 
quarters may be due in part to a disorder of the 
physical functions, and in part to the overturning of 
personal schemes. We are like a colony of crickets 



ii4 don't worry. 

who, when a ploughshare goes through the hill, begin 
with one accord to chirp that the world is coming to 
an end. But God reigns and everything is going 
right. We may vanish from the earth, and our plans 
for social betterment may go with us; but the world 
will roll on. The word of our Master is full of en- 
couragement: "All power is given unto me in heaven 
and on earth; go ye therefore and evangelize; and lo, 
I am with you alway even unto the end of the present 
order of things." 

We have covered the entire ground ; and what is 
our conclusion ? Let us alway and under all circum- 
stances take God at his word. He sees the end from 
the beginning, and we can trust him. In the court 
of the prison sat Jeremiah bathed in tears. Jerusalem 
was besieged by the Babylonian army and the Lord 
had declared that its inhabitants were to be carried 
into captivity. Just then the word came to Jeremiah, 
"Buy the field that is at Anathoth." This was the 
very field on which the Babylonians had pitched 
their camp. It was to be sold under foreclosure and 
would "go for a song ;" for, under the circumstances, 
who in Israel would be so bold as to purchase it ? 
But the prophet had faith, blind faith; and taking 
God at his word, he bought the field at Anathoth, 
and "weighed out the money even seventeen shekels 
of silver." Then when the purchase was consum- 
mated, the word of the Lord came again to Jeremiah, 
saying, "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be 
possessed again in this land." And events proved 
the wisdom of the investment. O what outlays of 
time and energy we should be constantly making 
in the spiritual province, if we could implicitly and 



DON T WORRY. 115 

unreservedly believe in God! We note the conquests 
and encroachments of passing errors and wonder 
what the end will be: but the time will surely come 
when the ground now occupied by the enemy shall be 
in possession of the church of God. 

In this confidence let us live by the day. A day at 
a time is enough. The year has been likened to a 
desk with three hundred and sixty-five drawers, each 
containing a letter of instructions for a single day. 
To open them all in over-eagerness and to confront 
all future duties and responsibilities at once, is to 
court perplexity and embarrassment. "The day 
present,' 5 as Tyndale translates, "hath ever enough 
of its own trouble." Let us in the morning open our 
instructions for the day. Let us do this on our 
knees and, rising with strong faith, go forth to meet 
our duties. Trust and rest j here is the secret of a 
happy life. And the great word of comfort is this : 
"As thy day, so shall thy strength be." 



THE TWELVE. 

" And he ordained twelve* that they should be with him, and that he might 
send them forth to preach and have power to heal sicknesses and cast out 
devils."— Mark 3, 14-15. 

A newborn child has need of special care. The 
Church at the outset must be safeguarded and fos- 
tered by means that would be quite unnecessary in 
its maturity. For this reason the Twelve were en- 
dued with extraordinary powers. They are some- 
times spoken of as " a Cabinet " ; but this is as far as 
possible from the truth, since they had no advisory 
power, nor executive either apart from their Chief. 
Their function was transmission, they being the 
channels through which the Lord was to communi- 
cate himself to succeeding ages. 

The marks of their holy office were three : First, 
they were to "be with him"; that is, in constant 
attendance upon him. Since they were to be his bio- 
graphers, they must be able to speak with authority 
as to his character and manner of life. Second, they 
were to preach; that is, to declare the evangel. This 
included the stereotyping of that evangel in Scripture. 
The New Testament was wholly written by the apos- 
tles; for which particular duty they were endowed 
with infallibility ; they ' ' wrote as they were moved by 
the Holy Spirit. ,, Third, they received the charismata, 
that is, spiritual gifts for the working of miracles. 

(n6) 



THE TWELVE. 117 

At the time of the ordaining of the Twelve, the 
followers of Jesus were a feeble folk like the conies. 
It was necessary that the new enterprise should be 
sustained and fostered in an extraordinary manner. 
But as the strength and numbers of the Church 
increased, her symbols of faith and practice being 
finished, and her Oracles sealed, the Day of Pentecost 
being " fully come" and the common gifts of the 
Spirit conferred on all, the special provision might be 
dispensed with. A scaffolding may be necessary in 
the rearing of the elevation of a temple, but as the 
walls rise the temporary supports are removed. That 
which is no longer important would better be taken 
out of the way. 

In the organization and personnel of this Duodecem- 
virate there are striking evidences of divine wisdom. 
It was a curiously constituted body. Some of its 
peculiarities are most interesting and profitably sug- 
gestive : — 

1 . To begin with, the number Twelve. In this the mys- 
tics discovered an important symbolism; to wit, as 
three is the number of the holy Trinity and four the 
number of universality, so their product marks the 
Duodecemvirate who in the name of the Trinity 
should go forth to the conquest of the world. This 
is interesting but wholy fanciful. 

The number was probably suggested by the twelve 
sons of Jacob. An emphasis is thus put upon the 
fact that Judaism and Christianity are not two 
religions but one. There is one God. There is one 
Bible covering all history from the protevangel to 
Malachi, and from the advent to the announcement 
of the strong angel, "Time shall be no more." 



Il8 THE TWELVE. 

There is one cross throwing its radiance backward 
over all prophecy and forward into all history ; giving 
significance to every lamb slain on the ancient altars 
and providing the only hope of deliverance from sin. 
There is one religion also and one only, covering the 
Old Economy and the New. Christianity is not a new 
system, but the consummate fruit and flower of 
Judaism with its rites and symbols all centering in 
Christ. It was meet and proper, therefore, that our 
Lord, in organizing his Church, should ordain the 
twelve apostles to stand side by side with the twelve 
sons of Israel for the propagation of the religion of 
the one true God. 

2. The question occurs, Why were there no Women 
among them ? The reason is not far to seek. It was 
certainly not because our Lord would suggest any 
disparity of the sexes. There is a difference, how- 
ever, to ignore which would be to set oneself athwart 
the law of nature. The work to which the apostles 
were called was one of peculiar hardship; it was 
distinctly a work for men. 

The " new woman," though clamoring for a con- 
spicuous place in public life, was eloquently silent 
when volunteers were recently wanted for our war 
with Spain. Her part in that conflict was important, 
indeed, in ministering to the sick and wounded, but 
not amid the confused noise of battle on the high 
places of the field. In like manner the Lord had 
need of woman's ministry, but not among those who 
were to mingle in the tumult of the early propa- 
ganda, exposed to the publicity of the madding 
crowd and braving dangers oft by land and sea. The 
duties of the apostolate were of such a character 



THE TWELVE. I19 

that it is no reflection on womanhood when we say- 
that men were better fitted to discharge them. 

3. Why were not Celibates exclusively chosen to this holy 
office? Had that been done, our friends of the Romish 
Church would have been spared a great perplexity; 
but indeed it would have been contrary to the 
divine economy. It is God who setteth the soli- 
tary in families; and his well-beloved Son put a per- 
petual sanction on wedlock in attending the marriage 
supper at Cana. We cannot say with absolute cer- 
tainty how many of the twelve were married, but 
there is no question whatever as to Peter, who is 
claimed as the original Pope (Mark i, 30). This fact 
is referred to by the Apostle Paul, in asserting his 
right to marry a sister in the Lord (1 Cor. 9, 5). The 
doctrine of a celibate clergy is unsparingly denounced 
in Paul's letter to the young pastor of the Corinthian 
church, where he warns him against certain seducing 
spirits who are "forbidding to marry;" such teaching 
he characterizes as " a doctrine of devils" (1 Tim. 
4, 3). The consistent teaching of all Scripture is 
that wedlock is " honorable in all." 

4. Let it be observed that the apostles were all Men of 
the People. There was not an aristocrat among them, 
nor a beggar, though there is room as well for beg- 
gars as for millionaires in the church. Christ him- 
self was a carpenter. In the immediate circle of 
his followers there were several fishermen. Philip is 
reputed to have been a charioteer. All belonged to 
"the Third Estate." Wealth is, indeed, no bar to 
the fellowship of Christ, nor is poverty; but alas for 
the church made up of the indolent rich or of the 
indolent poor! The Church is mainly recruited from 



120 THE TWELVE. 

among the bourgeoisie, the men of brain-craft and 
handicraft, the producers. 

Time was when labor was held in disrepute; the 
gospel in its calm influence along the centuries has 
glorified it. 

We hear it rumored in some quarters that the 
Church has lost its grip on the laboring classes. 
This is as far as possible from being true. Too 
many, indeed, are still alienated from the Church 
and from Christ their fellow-craftsman. But an ever- 
increasing number is being won year by year. The 
conquests of the propaganda are chiefly among this 
class. The efforts of the Church are most welcome 
and successful here; and the ultimate winning of the 
Third Estate is destined to usher in the Golden Age. 

5. The Twelve were all Unlettered men. It would 
have been an easy matter for Christ to gather an 
apostolate from among the rabbis and philosophers. 
The Sanhedrin was ever willing to endorse his claims 
and purposes, would he but comply with their terms. 
But Nicodemus was not chosen; the young lawyer, a 
professor of Biblical exegesis, was not chosen; the 
Scribes and Pharisees, so far from being chosen, were 
repulsed in severest terms. 

The world had had enough of rabbinical wisdom 
and philosophy, enough of wire-drawing and hair- 
splitting. The people were weary of theological 
controversy. The truths that were essential to life 
and that must needs be proclaimed for the world's 
deliverance, were of the simplest character. Sin and 
salvation; love God ward and manward; these were 
fundamental and these were within the comprehen- 
sion of all. There would presently be a place for 



THE TWELVE. 121 

Paul and ultimately for Augustine and Calvin; but 
what the world needed at this juncture was a deliver- 
ance from subtle dogmatics and apologetics and a 
clear statement of rudimental truth. This was Christ's 
meaning when he took a little child upon his knee and 
said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye become 
as this little child, ye shall in no wise enter the king- 
dom of God." 

6. They were all Towns?nen ; not a farmer nor a 
shepherd among them. The announcement of the 
incarnation came to shepherds while watching their 
flocks and to magi watching the stars. But the men 
needed for the organization of the Church were not 
dreamers and anchorites, but such as were familiar 
with earnest life. It is the city that gives knowledge 
of human nature. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so a 
man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Not 
dreamers of dreams and seers of visions, not diffident 
husbandmen, not introspective anchorites were needed 
at the organization of the Church, but rather men of 
affairs accustomed to busy life and fearing not the 
faces of their fellow men. 

7. They were as Unlike as possible. A man of rock, 
two sons of thunder, a doubter, a guileless Israelite; 
each had his characteristics, and each was fitted to 
the place ordained for him. We may find here a sug- 
gestion as to rational Church-union. There are those 
who would blot out all the distinctions between the 
denominations and set up a rigid uniformity in 
thought and method. But "fences make good neigh- 
bors." There was never a time since the beginning of 
the Christian era when the various bodies of believers 
were more clearly differentiated in their peculiar 



122 THE TWELVE, 

tenets or more cordially united in the fellowship of 
service than now. God be praised that they can thus 
agree to differ and keep the peace ! The twelve apostles, 
so diverse in temperament and character, were still 
united and harmonious in their consecration to Christ. 
Not uniformity but harmonious action is what we need. 
"In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all 
things charity " is the watchword that should unite us. 

8. They were Alike in their Conviction and Confession 
of Sin. There was not a " saint " among them. They 
were men of like passions and infirmities with our- 
selves. Had Jesus desired an apostolate of perfect 
beings, he must have chosen from among the angels. 
All of the apostles were imperfect and some had glar- 
ing faults. If Peter could speak for himself to-day 
he would say, "Take me out of your Calendar of 
Saints; I am the man who denied my Lord." And 
Thomas would say, "Take me also out of your Cal- 
endar; I am the man who doubted his power over 
death." And the Twelve with one accord would say, 
"We were not Saints, but sinners all, sinners saved 
by grace." We are drawn nearer to these men by 
this consideration; and furthermore, it emphasizes 
the sweet lesson of charity. It minimizes self and 
magnifies Christ; it makes the grateful song of 
Wesley ours : 

"I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, 
But Jesus Christ is my all in all." 

9. And there was One Hypocrite among them. Jesus 
knew Judas; he said of him, " He hath a devil"; 
nevertheless he chose him. It is as if Kaiser Wilhelm 
were to select an arch-anarchist to be his Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. Was this to teach us that a man 



THE TWELVE. 1 23 

may mingle in the sweetest Christian fellowship and 
still be an enemy of truth ? " Anear the kirk, afar 
frae God." A name on a church roster or a high 
place of ecclesiastical preferment is no proof of vital 
godliness. The Lord knoweth his own. The tares 
and the wheat must grow together until the harvest. 
" A man may cry, * Church, Church,' with no more 
piety than other people." Let us not conclude, how- 
ever, that to be overtaken in a glaring fault or exposed 
to public shame is proof positive of hypocrisy. Who 
am I, or who are you, to pass judgment in this 
matter ? The Lord looketh on the heart. " Let him 
that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 
One betrayed Christ, another denied him, all forsook 
him. It behooves us, in view of these things and of 
Christ's admonition, to ask with all earnestness, 
"Lord, is it I?" 

10. Not a few of the Twelve were Nobodies ; that is, 
there is little or no record of them. Let us not infer, 
however, that they accomplished nothing. God 
keeps the chronicles. He knows how many churches 
they founded, how many sermons they preached, how 
many miracles they wrought, how many sinners they 
brought to him. Our standards of success and great- 
ness are illusory. The makers of history have not 
been the conspicuous leaders whose names are writ 
large on the monuments. We have much to say of 
Cromwell and the Silent William and Coligny; but 
it is the tramp, tramp, tramp of the rank and file — the 
Puritans, the Beggars of Holland, the Huguenots — 
men who lived unknown and died unhonored and un- 
sung — that has marked the advancement of the cen- 
turies. Here are names without a record, as Seth 



124 THE TWELVE. 

and Enos and Jared and Mahalaleel. And here are 
records without names: as of the little maid in 
Naaman's palace, the little lad with the basket of 
loaves, the man who brought the beast of burden to 
Jesus for his triumphal entry, the soldier who 
quenched his fever thirst on the cross. God knows 
about them. "The Master praises; what are men?" 
Let us be willing to serve God in obscurity if 
need be. He that seeth in secret shall reward us 
openly. The names of the faithful, though unre- 
corded in earth's annals, are written on the palms of 
his hands. 

ii. All the Twelve were Martyrs. The only one in 
question is John; and tradition says that he was 
dragged by his gray hairs through the streets of 
Ephesus and cast into the arena "to be ground as 
God's fine wheat by the teeth of lions." 

They climbed the steep ascent to heaven, 

'Mid peril, toil, and pain ; 
O God, to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train ! 

Here is a lesson for these piping times of peace. The 
story of the apostles, who faced the gleaming ax for 
Jesus' sake, puts us to shame. There is no room for 
a coward in the goodly fellowship. Why should we 
"be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease?" 
The danger of martyrdom has passed; and, alas! we 
shrink before a pointed finger. Let us be ready to 
endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. His 
word is, "If any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." 

12. The Apostles had No Successors. There was no 
occasion for any to succeed them. The infant Church, 



THE TWELVE. 1 25 

during the century which elapsed before the death of 
John the Evangelist, had grown to such maturity in 
strength and influence, that it could be left safely to 
the protecting care of God's common Providence. 
He who kindles a fire on his hearthstone must select 
the proper sort of tinder and arrange it carefully; 
then kneel and blow gently on the kindling spark ; 
but after a while he rises to his feet, knowing that 
with proper oversight the fire will burn of itself. 
Thus Christ fostered the early Church; but presently 
came Pentecost; and thenceforth the air was full of 
oxygen to feed the flame. 

I am not disposed, however, to controvert the claim 
of those who insist on "the Apostolic Succession. ,, 
We stand open to conviction ; and it should be an easy 
matter to convince us. All that is necessary in order to 
establish the apostolic lineage and authority of these 
brethren is that they should show themselves to be 
possessed of the three apostolic signs ; to wit, First, 
They must have lived and walked with Jesus in the 
flesh, listened to his words, beheld his miracles, and 
witnessed his resurrection (Acts i, 21, 22). Second, 
They must be infallible in the communication of 
spiritual truth. The twelve wrote Scripture ; so far 
as we are aware, no one of their alleged successors 
has ever added a single page. Indeed, there is only 
one man living to-day who claims infallibility in these 
premises; and some of us have doubts of even him. 
Third, They must have power to work miracles. There 
are some who profess to heal the sick by laying on of 
hands; but at the best they cannot claim anunvarying 
success, nor do they attribute their therapeutic power 
to any aposto lie charismata. There is apparently less 



126 THE TWELVE. 

of healing virtue in the entire College of Cardinals 
than in Peter's shadow or John's handkerchief. 

In addition to the Apostolate, the Lord appointed 
"other seventy also " to go forth among the villages 
and preach his gospel. In addition also to these sev- 
enty he made every one of his followers an agent of 
the propaganda. He breathed on them all, men, 
women and children, saying, "Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost"; adding, "As the Father hath sent me into 
the world, so send I you." Thus, in a broad and 
blessed sense, all are apostles, being "sent ones." 

In the mind of Jesus there was a magnificent pur- 
pose ; no less than the setting up of his kingdom on 
earth and the deliverance of the race from sin. A 
place in that great purpose is assigned to the hum- 
blest of his people. The man who hears not or heeds 
not such appointment makes a failure of life. On 
the back of Holman Hunt's picture of "The Light 
of the World " — representing the King, thorn- 
crowned, lantern in hand, standing without the door, 
knocking — is the artist's autograph in these words: 
"Lord, pass me not by!" But, indeed, the Lord 
passes by no man who is willing to receive him. He 
calls us to a large salvation, which means not merely 
redemption, but election to the high privilege of serv- 
ice. He sends us every one to carry on the work 
which he began and his apostles furthered in the lay- 
ing of the foundations of the Church. If we follow 
in his steps, pursue his work, devote ourselves to the 
winning of souls and the building of his kingdom 
here and now, we shall pass in through the apostolic 
gate at last and receive his commendation, " Well done, 
good servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! " 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 

"And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the 
street that was before the Water-gate.' , — Nehemiah 8, i. 

In the year 604 B.C. the city of Jerusalem fell into 
the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and was presently 
reduced to utter ruin and desolation. The inhabit- 
ants were carried away in successive deportations to 
Babylon, where they "hung their harps on the wil- 
lows and wept when they remembered Zion. " In 
536 B.C. a proclamation was issued by Cyrus author- 
izing the return of a colony under Zerubbabel to 
rebuild the temple and restore the sacred rites. In 
479 B.C. — fifty-seven years later — Ezra the scribe 
returned with another company; he devoted himself 
particularly to the reformation of morals. It was 
very clear that there could be no permanent improve- 
ment until the people should renew their loyalty to 
the Scriptures, which were the symbol of both their 
political and their religious life. 

To the help of Ezra came, after ten years, Nehemiah, 
the cup-bearer of Artaxerxes. As governor of the 
province, he was instructed to address himself to civil 
affairs and particularly to the rebuilding of the walls. 
He was an astute politician as well as a devout man. 
He conferred with Ezra, who said, "We must get 
back to the Constitution of the Theocracy. " — "But 

(127) 



128 AT THE WATER-GATE. 

where is that Constitution ? " asked Nehemiah. — " In 
the Scriptures," was the reply, ' ' which have long been 
a dead letter among the people." — " Where are those 
Scriptures?" — "The copy which was preserved in 
the Ark of the Covenant was carried away to Babylon 
and lost. I have been engaged, during the ten years 
since my return, in getting them together. The scroll 
is now complete; and I suggest that the people be 
assembled to hear it. " 

In pursuance of this suggestion, a Constitutional 
Assembly was convened on the first of the seventh 
month, 444 B.C. It was in the great public square of 
Ophel, before the Water-gate. Not less than fifty thou- 
sand men, women and children came together there. 
It was a stirring scene. For the first time in a century, 
the walls being now completed and the gates in place, 
the inhabitants of the city might assemble thus in 
security. Their purpose was to hear the Scriptures. 
A platform had been reared, on which Ezra, with 
thirteen priests and as many Levites took their place. 
This platform is called "a pulpit"; but it was dis- 
tinctly not what we understand by the pulpit. It did 
not enclose the ministers or separate them from the 
people. 

Our pulpit took its rise in those ages of spiritual 
declension when the truth was minimized and "holy 
orders " were invested with an unseemly authority. 
The priest climbed by a winding stairway to his place 
on a pillar, far above the congregation. ; a place beseem- 
ing one who, as Dryden says, "swelled to counsel 
kings and govern kingdoms." A railing must needs 
be there for protection; and within this enclosure 
stood the superior being, like an angel leaning from 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 1 29 

a balcony. In the dawning light of the Reforma- 
tion this platform was gradually lowered to the level 
of the people, with only so much of elevation as was 
needed for the convenience of being seen and heard. 
But, alas! the fence remained and still remains; and 
this is the pulpit. I say it is an archaism, a tradi- 
tional impertinence, and avast inconvenience. There 
is no reason for it, in Scripture or in common sense. 
The preacher is not a being apart from or above his 
fellows, but a man among men. 

I. "And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the 
people; and when he opened it } all the people stood up." 
There were no listless or indifferent ones; but at the 
opening of the scroll, all as one man assumed an atti- 
tude of attention and reverence. Why ? What was 
this scroll that so impressed them ? It was the Penta- 
teuch, the long-neglected Book of the Law. It was 
those Five Books of Moses which, in many quarters 
to-day, are treated with scant courtesy. It was 
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteron- 
omy — the same Deuteronomy which some of our 
sapient critics have discovered to be a forgery! 

They say we are living in an age of Bible study. 
It is probably true that there never was a time when 
the Scriptures were viewed with such severe scrutiny 
by scholars devout and otherwise. There is reason 
to suspect, however, that among average Christians 
there is much neglect of Holy Writ. We are in- 
formed by scientists that the germs of many con- 
tagious diseases are circulated in the dust blowing 
along our streets. The dust that lies on our unused 
Bibles is the occasion of much of the spiritual infirm- 
ity of our times; in it are the germs of doubt and 



130 AT THE WATER-GATE. 

skepticism and infidelity. No man can live an ear- 
nest Christian life except as he is loyal to the word 
of God. 

It must be said, furthermore, that not all the 
scholars who devote themselves assiduously to the 
study of the Scriptures, show a due regard for its 
divine character. There are many who openly and 
flagrantly dishonor it ; not merely by sneering at 
considerable portions, but by reducing it for crit- 
ical use to the level of other books. The position 
assumed in some of our theological seminaries is 
this: In order to a judicial investigation and crit- 
ical study of the Scriptures, you must put aside all 
preconception of its sacred character and regard 
it precisely as you would an uninspired writing. 
This is a most unreasonable and pernicious sophism. 

It may do for outsiders to view revelation in this 
manner; but surely not for Christians who have 
solemnly accepted the Book as an infallible rule of 
faith and practice, and who stand pledged to the 
proposition that the Scriptures were prepared "by 
holy men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. ,, It is impossible for these to waive the doc- 
trine of inspiration. Nor is it necessary. A man 
need not put aside his loyalty as an American citizen 
in order to an impartial study of the principles of 
the Constitution. The son of Lord Tennyson was 
not required to disavow his filial love when he under- 
took to write a just biography of his father. A jury- 
man is not asked to dispossess his mind of precon- 
ceptions as to dishonesty before he can pass judgment 
on a prisoner at the bar. If the contention of the 
destructive critics is just, we are driven to this pre- 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 131 

posterous conclusion: that we as Christians must not 
presume to view judicially the life and character of 
Jesus Christ, unless we previously lay aside all our 
love and devotion to him. 

In justice to our religion, in fulfillment of our 
espousal vows, we are bound to regard the Scripture 
as a book by itself, solitary and alone, given by inspi- 
ration as the unveiling of the divine mind. "Do 
you mean to assert, then, that Christianity is the 
religion of a book?" Aye; why not? "But we 
thought it was the religion of Christ. ,, So it is; the 
religion of Christ as he is portrayed in the Book. 
We speak of our Republic as a Constitutional Gov- 
ernment, — that is, a government resting on a written 
symbol. Is it not, then, the republic of Washington 
and Madison, of Jefferson and Hamilton, of Frank- 
lin and Adams ? Aye; but only as they have recorded 
and perpetuated their political convictions in the Con- 
stitution. And by common consent the perpetuity of 
our nation depends upon our loyalty to that compen- 
dium of political truth. In like manner the Bible, as 
the reflex of the divine mind, is the very life of Christi- 
anity ; and, as such, it stands apart from and infinitely 
superior to all other books. 

In the desert of Midian there were many acacia 
bushes, and Moses might have smitten any with his 
shepherd's crook. But one day he saw a bush aflame 
and not consumed. He said, " I will now turn aside 
and see this great sight." But a voice came from 
the bush saying, " Draw not nigh hither: put off thy 
shoes from off thy feet ; for the place whereon thou 
standest is holy ground. I am the Lord thy God! " 
Then Moses hid his face and was afraid to look. In 



132 AT THE WATER-GATE. 

like manner the world is full of books; but there is 
one which we approach with reverence, because it has 
fed bonfires through all the ages and is not yet con- 
sumed; and a voice proceeds from it saying, "I am 
the Lord thy God!" 

The conspicuous sin of our time is irreverence 
toward the sacred Word. We take all manner of 
liberties with it. We draw upon it for riddles and 
pleasantries. Procul, procul abeste, profani! Hands 
off the Ark! For it is written, " Thou hast magnified 
thy word above all thy name! " 

Ministers of righteousness, stand up at the unfold- 
ing of the scroll! Put away your penknives and veil 
your faces. God speaks from his oracles ; let all the 
earth keep silence before him. 

Men and women of Christ, bow your faces at the 
opening of the Book! Speak with caution. Who 
are we that we should put our quarter-ounce of ped- 
antry against omniscience ? The wisdom of man is 
as ephemeral as the breath of his nostrils. The heav- 
ens shall be rolled up as a scroll and the earth shall 
be consumed as with fervent heat; but the word of 
the Lord endureth forever! 

II. "So they read in the book distinctly \ and gave the 
sense, and caused them to understand the reading." At 
this point "the people were in their place;" this 
probably means that they sat down. But why should 
they sit down ? Because there is a clear difference 
between God's word and a preacher's exposition. 
One is authoritative and inerrant; the other is an 
opinion, true or false as the case may be. A wise 
minister does not expect his people to receive his 
interpretation of Scripture as final; he asks only 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 133 

that they give due attention to his statement as the 
result of careful study and investigation, and then 
put it to the test, weighing, judging, proving all 
things and holding fast that which is good. My 
friend, let no man take your crown. Think for 
yourself; let no man, preacher or otherwise, do your 
thinking for you. Make the word of the Lord your 
court of last appeal; and be able to give to every 
man a reason for the faith that is in you. 

An important part of the work of Ezra, with his 
scribes and Levites in the great assembly, was the 
translation of the sacred writings into the Aramaic 
tongue. For the people in their long captivity had 
almost or quite forgotten the Hebrew.* God be 
praised for Wyclif who, at peril of his life, translated 
the Scriptures into the English tongue, saying, "If 
God please, I will cause that every ploughman and 
every apprentice shall be able to read the divine ora- 
cles for himself." God be praised that the meanest 
of the Stuarts was moved to give us the King James 
Version. It is rumored that the Romish Church is 
about to retranslate the Vulgate for a more general 
circulation among the people. Who shall estimate 
the possibilities of such an enterprise ? We have had 
enough of cabalistic prayers and scriptures. Paul 
wisely wrote to the Corinthians, "I would rather 
speak five words with the understanding than a 
thousand words in an unknown tongue." 

Then came the Exposition of the Word. The 
scribes and Levites "gave the sense and caused the 
people to understand." This was preaching. The 

* The language of Jesus in his preaching was the Aramaic; as in the words, 
Ephphatha; Talitha cumij Elol, Eloi, lama sabachthani. 



134 AT THE WATER-GATE. 

only true preaching is expository. Not that a text 
is necessary; this being purely conventional. Nor 
is it always best to analyze a particular paragraph 
and treat it seriatim. But true preaching is ever a 
setting forth of those great principles which are en- 
shrined with quickening power in Holy Writ. It is 
to state them " distinctly/' to " give the sense," to 
' ' cause the people to understand," and to apply those 
principles to the common affairs of life. This is what 
the people want; not vocal gymnastics nor oratorical 
pyrotechnics; and certainly not a treatment of cur- 
rent problems without reference to divine truth. The 
word sermo means "a thrust." A sermon is a clear, 
effective thrust with the sword of the Spirit which is 
the word of God. 

We are not unfrequently told that the pulpit of our 
time "has lost power." It is doubtless true that 
some pulpits have done so; but ministers of the gos- 
pel who hold themselves to the declaration of the 
inerrant Word are not complaining of a lack of 
hearers. The pulpit as an institution is and must 
ever be the greatest power in the world. " The Pul- 
pit versus the Press " is not an open question. We do 
not underestimate the power of the Press for good or 
evil ; but on what basis will you compare them ? The 
ratio in the last reduction is that of a penny whistle 
to a roll of thunder. The press is the purveyor of 
news in politics, in society, in international affairs. 
We want the news, the secular news, from the re- 
motest corners of the earth; but the Good News of 
salvation we must have or die. So long as sin runs 
through the veins of the race; so long as the uni- 
versal heart throbs to the question, "What shall I 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 135 

do to be saved ? " ; so long as men have splendid 
dreams of character and influence and eternal life; 
so long must the power of the pulpit be supreme. 
The telegraph wires are laden and vibrant with mes- 
sages; but there is no message like this which comes 
from the heavenly throne, the news that God so loved 
the world that he gave his only-begotten Son to 
suffer and die for it. 

III. As to the Results of that great Assembly. For 
events like lives must be measured by their fruits. 
11 If any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, 
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a 
glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, 
and straightw r ay forgetteth what manner of man he 
was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of lib- 
erty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful 
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be 
blessed in his deed." 

It is recorded that, as the reading and exposition 
of the Scriptures proceeded, the people answered, 
"Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. " They 
saw themselves reflected in the Law. They knew 
the law was holy, just and good; they knew that 
they had broken it. An old man and his wife once 
sat down to read. Presently he said, "Wife, if these 
things are true, we are all wrong." As they read 
further she said, "Husband, if these things are 
true, we are lost." They still read on; until they 
were moved to say, "If these things are true, we are 
saved ! " There is no more striking evidence of the 
divinity of the book than in the quick response which 
mind, conscience and heart make to it. 

"And all the people wept." It was an affecting 



I3O AT THE WATER-GATE. 

sight; the great assembly moved to passionate tears, 
as a wheat field bowing in the wind. But why weep? 
No doubt on the outskirts of the assembly there were 
some who curled their lips in scorn at the reading 
of the Mosaic Cosmogony, the Flood, the Destruction 
of the Cities of the Plain, the Giving of the Law, the 
Pillar of Fire, the Blood streaming from the brazen 
Altar. These were mere fables to their minds; for 
there were overwise people in those days as now. But 
life had gone wrong with the multitude, and they were 
moved by the very opening words of the scroll, " In 
the beginning God ! " They saw their own experience 
in the sorrow of the antediluvians. They shook and 
trembled with the multitude who gathered around 
Sinai. They feared with their fathers on the Passover 
night, with the blood on the lintels of the doors and 
the angel of destruction passing over. They bowed 
their faces to the earth around the flaming altar and 
beneath the pillar of cloud. They were in no mood to 
speculate on the jot and tittle of moral or doctrinal 
distinctions now; they were as sinners in the hands 
of an angry God. 

But more, they "worshiped the Lord " and renewed 
their covenant with him. It was a time for reconse- 
cration. They determined that day to abandon their 
inconsistent manner of life, to give up usury and 
extortion, to observe the holy convocation. This was 
a Revival indeed. It was a return to pure and unde- 
filed religion. 

And Nehemiah said to the people, " Go your way, 
eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions 
unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for this 
day is holy unto the Lord ; neither be ye sorry, for 



AT THE WATER-GATE. 137 

the joy of the Lord is your strength." Why should 
they not rejoice ? They had indeed been smitten to 
the heart by a clear perception of their sins ; but they 
had also seen at the altar a foregleam of the cross, 
and they knew that God stood ready to forgive their 
sin. Then came the Feast of Tabernacles. Up and 
down the streets of Jerusalem went the multitude 
waving lulab branches and singing, " O that men 
would praise the Lord for his goodness and his won- 
derful works to the children of men! " 

Let us return to our Bibles, dear friends, if we 
would know the joy of the Lord. We cannot too soon 
assume a loving, reverent and responsive attitude to 
his Scriptures. Dear Book! In the darkness of sin, 
thou hast been our dayspring from on high. In 
sorrow thou hast given us the garment of praise for 
the spirit of heaviness. In trial thou hast lightened 
our burdens. Thou hast been our sun by day, our 
moon and stars by night; and in the valley of death 
thou wilt be a rod and a staff to comfort us. Thou 
art a well in the Valley of Baca, from which we drink 
up strength along the way. Thou art deep as the sea; 
sharp as a two-edged sword even to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit; fierce as a consuming fire 
to those who reject or revile thee; soothing as balm 
of Gilead to the wounded soul. 

To the Law and the Testimony, O people of Christ! 
Have you been absorbed in selfish cares and pleasures ? 
Take down the Book and prayerfully read it. Have you 
been mourning, " Dear Lord, and shall we ever live 
at this poor dying rate"? Open the Book, and ob- 
serve how God waits to be gracious. See how the 
face of Jesus looks out upon you from every page ; 



138 AT THE WATER-GATE. 

how his love is written everywhere between the lines. 
Hear his word of invitation, and let your soul re- 
spond "Amen." 

It is said that when the war of Holland with Spain 
was over, the people of Haarlem, reduced to starva- 
tion by a protracted siege, assembled to hear the 
proclamation of peace. The oldest man in the city 
had been appointed to read it. His eyes were dim ; 
his voice was tremulous. The people strained their 
ears to hear; they watched the moving of his lips; 
whatever else they missed, one thing was clear; the 
day of peace had come! So in our perusal of the 
blessed Book, we come upon much that is difficult to 
understand. How could it be otherwise, since it 
came from the infinite Mind ? But this is plain as the 
sun at noon: God loves the world and has given his 
only-begotten Son to die for our salvation. In the 
pages of the Book we behold a picture of ourselves 
and thereat we weep. We behold God, and see- 
ing him, we weep; for he is just and righteous alto- 
gether. And we behold the cross, his overture of 
peace to sinners ; and thereat we cease to weep. The 
joy of the Lord becomes our strength. We make 
merry as in the Feast of Tabernacles, because his 
goodness is great toward us. 



AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH'S 
HOUSE 

41 And when they were come into the house, they saw—."— Matt. 2, 11. 

The tetrarch of Judea was much disturbed. He 
had hardened himself against the memories of a mis- 
lived past. He could laugh at the specters that shook 
their fingers at him in the night-watches. But what 
he could not endure was the thought of losing his 
crown. The air was filled with rumors of a coming 
king. The Jews had long been expectant. Virgil 
had sung his Ninth Eclogue, predicting the approach 
of One who should usher in the Golden Age. The 
same thought was prominent in the contemporary 
drama of the Greeks. And on all hands there was a 
substantial agreement, mentioned by Tacitus, Sueto- 
nius and Josephus, that this Messiah was to be born 
among the Jews. 

The arrival of the Magi at Jerusalem threw the 
naturally suspicious Herod into a paroxysm of jealous 
fear. They had gone from door to door asking, 
" Where is he that is born King of the Jews ?" The 
rabbis, subservient to the tetrarch's will, came to- 
gether in haste. "Tell me," he demanded, "where 
this King of Israel should be born ? " The prophecy 
of Micah was recalled : "And thou, Bethlehem Ephra- 
tah, though thou be little among the thousands of 

(139) 



I40 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH'S HOUSE. 

Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth that is to 
be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from 
of old, from everlasting." Thereupon the Magians 
were sent for. "Go to Bethlehem," said Herod, 
"and search diligently for the young child ; and when 
ye have found him, bring me word again, that I also 
may come and worship him." As they passed through 
the gates, the star that had previously guided them 
reappeared, and they rejoiced with exceeding joy. 

It must have been toward morning when they en- 
tered Bethlehem, still asking, "Where is he that is 
born King of the Jews ? " They were directed to the 
house of Joseph. And now they are standing at the 
threshold; but let them pause before they lift the 
latch, and let us pause with them; for within that 
door is the greatest of mysteries, — the Incarnation. 
Let not mortals rush in where angels fear to tread 
The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of that truth, 
God manifest in flesh. Over it the cherubim stood 
in reverent attitude, with downcast eyes ; as it is writ- 
ten, "which things the angels desire to look into." 

I. Let us remark of these Magi before they enter, 
that they believed in God. They were Zoroastrians, 
worshiping the sun as a visible symbol of the true 
God. They were astronomers also; versed in theo- 
logical lore as set forth in the music of the spheres. 

11 What though in solemn silence all 
Move round this dark terrestrial ball ? 
What though no real voice nor sound 
Amid those radiant orbs be found? 
In reason's ear they all rejoice 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
Forever singing as they shine, 
4 The hand that made us is Divine.' " 



AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH'S HOUSE. 141 

It has been written, "An undevout astronomer is 
mad "; and the same may be asserted of any rational 
being who denies the existence of God. Theism is 
an intellectual necessity. If one were to account for 
the speed of a locomotive by saying, "The wheels 
are doing it," you would naturally ask, " But what 
is back of the wheels?" If he should reply, "The 
steam is moving them," you would still ask, "But 
what is back of the steam ? " And your reason would 
not rest until it found the engineer. If you were to 
observe from a hilltop the skilful maneuvers of a 
battle, the marchings and countermarchings, the 
infantry in line, the cavalry speeding over the hills to 
reenforce them, the artillery placing their guns in 
every coign of vantage, the suggestion that this was 
automatic would provoke a smile. You would sweep 
the valley with your field-glass until you found the 
commander-in-chief before his tent directing all. We 
are on a world that speeds along its orbit with a 
thousand times the rapidity of the Empire State Ex- 
press, aud it needs no argument to prove a hand at the 
throttle. We are in the thick of the conflict of current 
events; and it needs no argument to prove a direct- 
ing Providence. A profession of atheism is proof 
presumptive of an ill-balanced or unsettled mind. 
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no 
God." 

II. But these Magians not merely believed in God ; 
they wished to see him. They inquired for "the King of 
the Jews," indeed ; but there was a profound signifi- 
cance in the phrase. It was a proverb, " Salvation is 
of the Jews." The expectation was that God would, 
from among his chosen people, make bare his arm 



142 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH S HOUSE. 

for deliverance. This was "The Hope of Israel," and 
the world sympathized with it. "The King of the 
Jews," was, therefore, a Messianic title; as were "Im- 
manuel " and "Son of God." There is a sense in 
which all, being created in the divine image, are sons 
of God; but this Messiah was to be the "only-begot- 
ten." All the coins that were issued under the domin- 
ion of Caesar bore his image and superscription ; but 
that image was impressed in a peculiar manner on 
his son. In his veins flowed the royal blood; he was 
heir apparent to the throne. It had been prophesied 
that God would manifest himself in like manner in 
the last days : "For unto us a child is born, unto us a 
Son is given : and the government shall be upon his 
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
The Prince of Peace ;" also, "A virgin shall conceive 
and bear a son and shall call his name, Immanuel ; 
that is, God with us." 

It was to see Messiah — not another Ahab or Manas- 
seh — that the Magians came so far. Their apprehen- 
sion of the great truth was probably dim as com- 
pared with ours; but the star gave it emphasis. It 
was a singular star ; going before them in the heavens 
and beckoning. Here surely was "a heavenly con- 
junction " in a higher sense than scientists understand 
it. All the potentates of the earth could not kindle 
such an omen in the skies. It was as if God himself 
were saying, "Follow! Follow! I have somewhat to 
show you." 

To see God is the desire of all earnest men. " Show 
us the Father and it sufficeth us." The eldest of the 
patriarchs has left a pathetic story of this quest: " O 



AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPHS HOUSE. 1 43 

that I knew where I might find him, that I might 
come even to his seat. I would order my cause before 
him, and fill my mouth with arguments. Behold, I 
go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but 
I cannot perceive him : on the left hand, where he 
doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth 
himself on the right hand, that I cannot see 
him." 

In pursuance of this longing for a visible God the 
children of Israel made them the golden calf. It is 
so hard to worship the Incomprehensible Essence. 
Perhaps a philosopher may grasp it ; but the multi- 
tudes still go asking, 4< Where is he ? " 

III. The Magi, standing at Joseph's door, have 
come to the right place to find God. If there is a God, as 
all believe, and if he is our Father, he will surely 
manifest himself in some way. But how ? The hope 
of Moses, in his prayer "Show me thy glory," 
was that the veil might be withdrawn before his 
fleshly eyes. That, however, is impossible; for no 
man can see God and live. The light of all the orbs 
floating in space, concentrated into one fierce sun- 
burst, could not equal the dazzling brightness of his 
face. The prayer of Moses was heard ; he hid him- 
self in the cleft of the rock and God passed by; there 
was the rustling of a moving garment, a momentary 
shadow ; and that was all. 

We search for God in nature; and the result is the 
Pantheon. There are gods from hill and valley; 
nymphs, dryads, nereids, deifications of nature in 
every form. Men worship the sun, the scarabaeus, 
great Moloch with his fiery arms, a lizard, a crocodile, 
an onion. O the lamentable depths to which the race 



144 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH'S HOUSE. 

has fallen in its desire to find or make a suitable 
symbol of the invisible God ! 

We search for him in philosophy with no better 
result. The orientals ended their researches in a 
deification of the universe; that is, All things are 
God. The Occidentals arrived at Pantheism; that 
is, God is all things. These ultimates were equally 
false and equally true. Thales professed to have dis- 
covered in Water the potency of life, Xenophanes 
proclaimed that nothing could be more divine than 
Thought. Plato anticipated the investigations of mod- 
ern scientists who declare that the Ultimate is all- 
pervading Law or Force. The Stoics were agnostics, 
giving up the quest in despair ; saying, like Fichte, 
u We know nothing, not even that we know nothing." 

Shall we then evolve God from our inner con- 
sciousness ? The utmost that a man can do in this 
direction is to project himself in large dimensions on 
the skies, a Brocken of the Alps. As there are many 
men of many minds the result must be a correspond- 
ing multiplicity of gods. 

How then can he reveal himself save in an incar- 
nation ? We have exhausted our resources. The 
world grows weary of seeking him. The fulness of 
time is the hour of despair. He will now reveal him- 
self, as declared in all prophecy, as announced in the 
evangel, — "The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head." The great Father desires to com- 
municate with his children. Our medium of com- 
munication is language. The Word of the Father 
will now be articulated for his children's use. The 
Word shall be made flesh that it may dwell among us. 

IV. One thing remains to be said before the Magians 



AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH S HOUSE. 1 45 

pass the threshold of Joseph's house; they must have 
faith. For spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 
The verities of the invisible world are beyond our 
finger tips. Faith is " the sixth sense." It is as 
really a sense as sight or hearing; consequently it is 
as unreasonable for a man to expect to grasp a spirit- 
ual truth without the exercise of faith, as it w r ould be 
to insist on hearing a thing which can only be seen. 
One sense can not usurp the functions of another 
Hence all efforts to demonstrate spiritual facts by the 
so-called scientific method are futile. 

A recent periodical contains an argument on "Phy- 
sical Science and the Doctrine of Immortality", in 
which the writer undertakes to demonstrate by the 
scientific method that there is life beyond death. 
His concluding words are these: "We thus, in view 
of the advances of physical science, appear to have 
an infinite capacity of conceiving of impressions 
which may come from regions far transcending the 
narrow limits of this earth; and, in view of this capa- 
city, can we believe that this little life is rounded 
with a sleep from which there is no awakening? " The 
learned disquisition closes with a mark of interro- 
gation ! But how could it be otherwise since faith, 
and faith alone, is "the evidence of things not seen"? 

The most veritable facts in human life and experi- 
ence are not infrequently beyond the necessity, not 
to say beyond the possibility, of argument. You 
will thank no man for tearing apart the leaves and 
petals of a rose to help your appreciation of it. It 
would be a useless task to dissect the vocal apparatus 
of a skylark ; let me see it soaring through the ether 
and hear its matchless song! I watch the sun go 



146 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH^ HOUSE. 

down in golden glory ; and a discourse on the refrac- 
tion of light just then would be an impertinence. O 
man of science, be still and let me drink this beauty 
in ! Or who shall argue as to a mother's love ? Who 
shall estimate it by a mathematical computation of 
the number of kisses imprinted on an infant's cheek? 
So with this doctrine of the incarnation ; you cannot 
reduce it to a dull scientific fact. Before you reach 
your quod erat demonstrandum, the life and glory have 
departed. Let this suffice. God is manifest in flesh. 
Let me bow and silently behold him. There is a 
magnetism in the presence of Christ, a light in his 
eyes, a warmth in his hands, a life out of his death, 
that forces me to cry like the centurion beneath his 
cross, "Verily, this is the Son of God!" 

Not that the incarnation is contra-rational. It is 
above, but not against reason. It lies distinctly in 
the province of faith. The man who makes the asser- 
tion that no fact is to be received which cannot be 
apprehended by the senses, is in deep water; for we 
live and move and have our being in a realm of mys- 
tery. I will agree to explain to you the dual nature 
of Christ if you will explain to me the dual nature 
of man. lam flesh and spirit; no scientist in the 
world can elucidate the connection and co-operation 
of these two. I lift my hand. What does that mean? 
The power of mind over matter. My reason spoke 
to my will, my will commanded a sinew; and, behold, 
it was done! Thus spirit and flesh co-operate; my 
dual personality is a fact; no philosopher can explain 
it; none can deny it. 

We are ready now to lift the latch and pass, with 
the Magians, into Joseph's house. Here is the mys- 



AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH S HOUSE. 147 

tery, God manifest in flesh. Theanthropos ! This 
child wrapped in swaddling bands is the very God 
that sat upon the circle of the universe and called 
into being things that were not. This little hand, 
pink and dimpled, lying on its mother's breast, is the 
same that spun the new-created worlds into space, 
that rolls the rattling thunders through the skies. 
The mother soothes him with a lullaby, " Sleep, my 
baby, sleep. " The lips that murmur in response are 
destined to speak the word whereat, in the process of 
the centuries, the thrones of all the Caesars shall fall 
in irremediable ruin and give way to a kingdom of 
truth and righteousness on earth. He hath upon his 
vesture and his thigh a name written — a name to be 
made clearer and clearer in the progress of events — 
" King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 

The wise men are at his feet, they have opened 
their treasures, and are laying them before him; 
myrrh and gold and frankincense. Then, falling on 
their knees, they worship him. "The kings of the 
earth do bring their glory and honor unto him," 
Thus all knees shall bow before him ; for his kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is for- 
ever and ever. 

The truth revealed to us thus at the advent season 
is fundamental to Christianity. It bears the same 
relation to our doctrinal system that a mainspring 
bears to the watch. Every pin and wheel and lever 
is important; but break the mainspring and the watch 
stops. Not only so, this doctrine is the touchstone 
of Christian sincerity ; as it is written, " Hereby know 
we the Spirit of God : Every spirit that confesseth that 
Jesus Christ is come in flesh is of God ; and every 



148 AT THE THRESHOLD OF JOSEPH^ HOUSE. 

spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in 
the flesh is not of God" (1 John 4, 2). 

Here is the center of the gospel of reconciliation. 
If we reject the divine nativity, the cross of Calvary- 
has no more significance than any other cross. The 
atonement derives its significance from the incarna- 
tion. The shadow of the cross is over the manger. 
Here is God's meeting-place with man. The story of 
the prodigal who went away into a far country and 
squandered his substance in riotous living, is the 
world's parable. He determined to return; but as he 
journeyed homeward, sleeping under hedges, begging 
a crust, the very dogs barked at him. He stood at 
length on a hilltop in sight of his home. He could 
go no further, but paused for very shame. He saw 
his father in the distance standing and shading his 
eyes; he saw him grasp his staff and hasten this way 
— coming as God came in the incarnation — coming to 
meet his wretched, poverty-stricken son. And now, 
behold the father has fallen upon his neck, and is kiss- 
ing him. We are standing at the manger. God and 
man are reconciled here. Let us receive the mystery by 
faith, the truth with heart-felt gratitude. This is to 
come home. For only in the setting out of God to 
meet a wayward and helpless world is there a possi- 
bility of the world's return to God. 



a.tjf j 



THE BREVITY OF LIFE 

14 We bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.*'— {Revised Version) 
Psalm 90, 9. 

What is Life ? I went to the dictionary and it re- 
plied, " Animal existence." I asked the scientists — 
those who call themselves "biologists" and should 
therefore certainly know — and Herbert Spencer, their 
illustrious spokesman, gave this translucent answer: 
"Life is a definite combination of heterogeneous 
changes, simultaneous and successive, in correspond- 
ence with external coexistences and sequences." 
Then I questioned the poets; Shakespeare likened 
it to a drama : 

" Out, out, brief candle ! 
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
And then is heard no more.'* 

Sir Walter Raleigh, from his cell in London Tower, 
suggested the similitude of a journey: 

" Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 
My staff of faith to lean upon, 
My scrip of joy — immortal diet! — 
My bottle of salvation, 
My gown of glory, hope's true gauge, 
And thus I take my pilgrimage." 

But quaint George Herbert said it was a mere ram- 
ble through the fields on a summer's day: 

( J 49) 



150 THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 

•■ I made a posie while the day ran by; 

Here will I smell my remnant out and tie 

My life within this band. 

But Time did beckon to the flowers ; and they, 

By noon, most cunningly did steal away 

And wither in my hand." 
I then took my query to the pagan dreamers ; Pindar 
said, "Life is the shadow of a dream. " Lucian 
likened it to a storm at sea, where men like bubbles 
rise, reflect the glory of the heavens for a brief mo- 
ment, then vanish forever. Pliny's metaphor was of 
a larger sort: "It is a river," he said, "taking its 
rise at a fountain among the hills, gathering volume 
as it pursues its foaming, downward way, anon flow- 
ing calmly through the green valleys, and losing itself 
at last in the bosom of a boundless sea." 

Then I opened the Book ; and God said, "Thy days 
are swifter than a post; as the eagle that hasteth 
to the prey (Job 9, 25, 26). They are as a shadow 
(Job 8, 9) ; they pass away as the foam upon the 
water (Hosea 10, 7). As a flower of the field, so 
thou flourishest; for the wind passeth over thee and 
thou art gone (Ps. 103, 15, 16). Thou art like the grass 
which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth 
and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and 
withereth (Psalm 90, 5, 6) ; or as the grass upon the 
housetops which withereth before it groweth up 
(Psalm 129, 6). Thy years are as an handbreadth 
(Psalm 39, 5) ; thy coming and going are as the re- 
moval of a shepherd's tent (Isaiah 38, 12). Thy life 
is soon over, as a tale that is told." 

The story-teller is an interesting figure in the Ori- 
ental life of the olden time. He served not merely 
as a purveyor of news in the absence of books and 



THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 15I 

newspapers, but also as the narrator of legends and 
traditions. He is still to be met with in the encamp- 
ments of the Arabian Desert. At night the Bedouins 
gather in a circle, their swarthy faces glistening in 
the torchlight, their forms bent forward and eyes 
attent upon the story-teller, whose gestures, calm or 
violent, are adjusted to his theme. His voice is tran- 
quil as he leads his hearers to the wars; monotonous 
along the weary march ; rising to enthusiasm at the 
approach of the enemy ; reaching a shrill frenzy amid 
the clash of arms; sinking again to monotone along 
the homeward trudge; closing with a song beneath 
a lady's window. The tale is told ; the listeners have 
dispersed; the lights are out; the solemn silence of 
the desert is over all. 

So is life. To-day, to-morrow and the day after, 
and then the end. Why not ? Would you have it 
interminable, like a Chinese drama ? Here is the 
ordinance: "The days of our years are threescore 
years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be 
fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sor- 
row; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Our 
happiness depends in large measure on our cheerful 
acceptance of that decree. A recent writer defines 
life as "a continual struggle with death, with the 
certainty of being conquered at last." This is an 
unworthy view. There are considerations which 
make it clear to thoughtful people that our proper 
attitude is not one of stoical indifference or stolid 
surrender, but rather a calm and grateful acqui- 
escence in the limitation of life. 

First; the world was never intended to be the abode of 
immortal man. It is too little, and the tenant is too 



I52 THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 

great. A man is made in God's likeness; his nature 
is overarched by infinity; his life is a bundle of in- 
calculable potencies. The world is only twenty-five 
thousand miles in circumference, and the meanest 
man who walks upon its surface can belt it with a 
thought in the twinkling of an eye. It is inconceiv- 
able that God should have made such a creature and 
quickened him with a spark of his own being, to the 
end that he might walk on terra firrna with leaden 
feet, eat, drink, laugh, die, and be shut up finally in 
a leasehold of six feet of earth. 

No! Man is not for this world ; and this world is 
not for him. The disparity is too great between the 
habitat and the inhabitant. When Darius offered 
Alexander all the country lying west of the Euphra- 
tes in exchange for his daughter's hand, his favorite, 
Parmenio, said: " If I were thou, I would accept it." 
To which Alexander replied : "So would I, were I 
Parmenio." If the narrow view which prevails in 
some quarters were correct — that man is the remote 
descendant of a mollusk, that he is merely a hundred 
and fifty pounds of bone and sinew with nothing but 
phosphorus in his brain- chamber, that he is "a 
stomach with its appurtenances," — the world would, 
indeed, be quite large enough for him ; but for im- 
mortal beings it is simply "an inn where travelers 
bait, then post away." 

The second reason for acquiescence in the limitation 
of life is that its machinery wears out. In the Book of 
Ecclesiastes there is a striking picture of the decay 
of the physical powers. In old age, Koheleth says, 
" the keepers of the house do tremble and the strong 
men bow themselves [that is, the limbs are palsied 



THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 153 

and bowed with infirmity] ; those that look out of the 
windows be darkened [poor old eyes!]; the doors 
shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the 
grinding is low [the shrunken lips are pursed]; he 
shall rise up at the voice of the bird [no need of chan- 
ticleer ; the twitter of a sparrow awakes him from his 
light slumbers] ; and all the daughters of music are 
brought low [or, as Shakespeare puts it, "His big, 
manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, 
pipes and whistles in his sound "] ; he is afraid of that 
which is high [a long stairway is via dolorosa to him] ; 
fears are in the way, the almond tree blossoms [his 
head is crowned with silver]; the grasshopper is a 
burden, desire fails." It is time to go! 

The mental faculties also yield to advancing years. 
I remember well an aged figure that used to shuffle 
in slippers along the Yale campus. Time was when 
the voice of that man rang like a clarion and the mul- 
titude was swayed by his eloquence as by magic. 
Alas, he had become a "lean and slippered panta- 
loon," babbling and maundering as he tottered on his 
way. This is ever the dread of those who feel the 
burden of increasing years. They would not linger 
until memory fails and the wits go wool-gathering. 
Far better is it to go hence, pausing at the border- 
line of earth and heaven only to drink at the fountain 
of perpetual youth and then to live forever. 

But ("sorrow's crown of sorrows! ") the heart also 
wears out. At life's outset it puts forth tendrils, 
clasping a friend here and another there, which as 
years advance are sundered one by one. " I feel like 
one who treads alone some banquet hall deserted.'* 
In the art gallery at the Columbian Exposition was a 



154 THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 

picture by Josef Israel, representing an old man sit- 
ting with his face bowed between his wrinkled hands. 
On the bed beside him lay his wife — dead. The light 
of his eyes gone out! The title of the picture was 
"Alone." Who would care to linger under such cir- 
cumstances ? The home empty, the hearthstone cold, 
the heart desolate. Aye, surely, it is time to go. 

The third reason for acquiescence in the divine de- 
cree as to the transitoriness of life, is that a place is 
prepared for us in a better world. So Jesus said: " In 
my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not 
so, I would have told you ; I go to prepare a place 
for you." The world to which we go is adjusted to 
our nature ; it will afford ample room for the exercise 
of our divine energies. It is the world where Imman- 
uel, the Ideal Man, holds dominion. Our life there 
will be free from the limitations of time and space. 
"Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet 
appear what we shall be. " 

Our days here are school days. This world is just 
the place for preparation for a better one. Its pains 
and disappointments, its sorrows and adversities 
have in them the possibilities of character. The real 
life is beyond. In Heidelberg I saw once a group of 
students coming down the street in merry mood, one 
of whom was quite gray with age. I was told that 
he was of noble blood and independent fortune, and 
that he had been more than forty years in the curric- 
ulum of the University with no ambition, seemingly, 
to be graduated from it. So is the man who has no 
outlook beyond this present life. 

Death is "Commencement." It is the gateway 
into the larger and more real world of affairs. It is 



THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 155 

promotion to higher tasks and nobler responsibilities. 
It was a sad day for the Class of Sixty-seven when, 
at the close of our college course at New Haven, we 
gathered on the Campus for our mutual farewell. 
Our friendship had been cemented by four years of 
loving comradeship, and the tears we shed that day 
were tears of genuine sorrow. Yet, had the oppor- 
tunity been given to remain in the University, there 
was not one among us who would not have answered, 
11 No! Our preparation is finished; the world beck- 
ons; our hearts are beating fast with hope and high 
purpose and aspiration; we must go! " 

The solemn thought that we emphasize at the 
threshold of the New Year is this: Let us make the 
utmost of our opportunities of preparation for the larger 
life. Two things are necessary: one is to get rid of 
sin; and this can only be done by a simple accept- 
ance of Christ who died to redeem us. Until we 
have attended to that matter, all "good resolutions " 
are futile. When Sir Thomas More was a prisoner 
in the Tower of London a friend suggested that his 
unkempt beard should be shorn. His answer was, 
" There is a controversy between the king and myself 
as to my head; and until that be settled, I will take 
no trouble with it." The soul's welfare is the prime 
consideration; pending its reconciliation with an 
offended God, all other matters are of minor conse- 
quence. An acceptance of Christ is the final deter- 
mination of destiny; it should therefore be attended 
to this day. 

Having thus gotten rid of sin, the total remainder 
of preparation is to get used to service. By our ap- 
prenticeship here in the kingdom of Christ we should 



156 THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 

be fitting ourselves for the larger duties and respon- 
sibilities that await us. He who squanders his 
study hours is naturally affrighted by the thought 
of the "examination " incident to graduation. Let 
us be scrupulous in the discharge of every duty, 
knowing well the eternal issues that flow from faith- 
fulness here and now. "Do ye nexte thynge." 
Follow close in the footsteps of Jesus, of whom it is 
written, 4< He went about doing good." A pastor in 
this city tells of a humble parishioner, a hunchback 
— confined to her room, but ever zealous of good 
works — who placed in his hands these lines as ex- 
pressing the purpose of her life: 

"I must be doing something for the weary and the sad, 
I must be giving forth the love that makes my heart so glad; 
For God so fills my spirit with a joy that passeth show, 
I fain would do his bidding in the only way I know. 

"So to suffering and to sorrow I shall always give my heart, 
And pray to God that every day I may some good impart, 
Some little act of kindness, some simple word of cheer, 
To make some drooping heart rejoice or stay some falling 
tear. 

"And when I've crossed the river and passed its waters o'er, 
And feel that some will miss me upon the other shore, 
My grateful spirit ever shall bless the Lord divine, 
Who crowns the humblest efforts of a human love like mine." 

The year is before us. It is terra incognita, an un- 
known country of duties and dangers. One of the 
customary admonitions at the borderline is, "This 
year we may die." It is far more pertinent to say, 
" This year we must live." For living is more solemn 
than dying. It means responsibility, day by day, 
hour by hour. Patience is heroism, faithfulness is 



THE BREVITY OF LIFE. 1 5 7 

success, steadfastness is ultimate triumph. These are 
the virtues that shine brightest in the divine inven- 
tory. On Riverside Drive, just under the shadow 
of the Grant Monument, is a solitary gravestone in- 
scribed, " To an Amiable Child." It was over a cen- 
tury ago that this child, who, "the gates of heaven 
being left ajar, had wandered forth with dreamy 
eyes," lived sweetly, unselfishly, amiably for a little 
while and then returned to God. But who shall esti- 
mate the value of that little life ? Or who shall say 
that in the final reckoning the modest gravestone 
may not overshadow the monument of the great com- 
mander? For it is not success but faithfulness that 
tells, after all. 

And now I wish you a happy New Year; a year of 
God's peace in the consciousness of duty done; a 
year of simple faith in the divine goodness and of 
clear outlook toward the heavenly hills; a year of 
sweet communion with Jesus and close following in 
his steps; a year like that pleasant walk to Emmaus 
of which the disciples said, " Did not our hearts burn 
within us while he talked with us by the way ? " 



THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE 

u The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slack- 
ness ; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance."— 2 Peter, 3, 9. 

All men believe in Providence. The world is obvi- 
ously under law ; and reason suggests that behind the 
law is a Lawgiver. It is not too much to expect of 
this Lawgiver a just distribution of rewards and 
punishments among men. This finds expression in 
the Hindu doctrine of Karnta, or the Law of Conse- 
quences. The Scriptural statement is, " Whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; he that sow- 
eth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; 
and he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit 
reap everlasting life." 

But there appears to be something wrong in the 
administration of this law. We can discover no 
exact or immediate quid pro quo. The time between 
the seed-sowing and the harvest is sometimes beyond 
reason. God warns, entreats, admonishes, condemns 
and — suspends sentence. The execution hangs fire. 
The wicked persist in their wickedness and laugh at 
all omens of calamity. They live prosperously and 
" there are no bands in their death." 

There were the antediluvians, whom God threatened 
to destroy because he "saw that the wickedness of 
man was great in the earth and that every im- 
agination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually." Then what? The ark was one 

(158) 



THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 1 59 

hundred and twenty years in building! Meanwhile 
the world went on with its carnival of crime. Those 
who saw the patriarch building his ship at a great 
distance from any navigable water and heard his 
prophecies of the coming deluge, looked at each other 
sagely and said, "Old Noah has gone into his dotage !" 

And there were the Ninevites, of whom God said, 
"Their wickedness is come up before me." He sent 
Jonah to cry up and down through the city, "Yet 
forty days, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be over- 
thrown!" And when the forty days were over, the 
people having put on sackcloth in token of repent- 
ance, the city was spared; as it is written, "God 
repented of the evil that he had said he would do 
unto them, and he did it not." Was it strange that 
Jonah, whose veracity was thus compromised, should 
sulk in the shadow of his gourd, saying, "O Lord, 
I knew that thou wouldst repent thee of the evil; 
wherefore, let me die, I entreat thee! " 

And there were the Jews, who rejected the well- 
beloved Son of God. They crowned him with thorns, 
robed him in the cast-off purple of a petty magistrate, 
mocked and smote him, spat in his face and crucified 
him, saying: "His blood be on us and on our chil- 
dren ! " Yet the heavens did not rain fire upon them, 
and their children are the chancelors of the world's 
exchequer to-day. 

We need not go so far, however, to observe these 
delays of recompense. Our streets are full of sinners 
who persistently violate the divine law, mock at the 
admonitions of Holy Writ and tread on the precious 
blood of the covenant. We ourselves are monu- 
ments of the divine procrastination; as it is written, 



l6o THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 

"He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor re- 
warded us according to our iniquities/' If he had, 
indeed, we should not be worshipers in his sanctuary 
to-day, but prisoners of the outer darkness enduring 
the penalty of persistent sin. 

How shall we account for these delays ? Why is 
"the long shrift" given to those who are said to be 
"condemned already ? " The law is clear: "The soul 
that sinneth it shall die." Why do not the lifted 
thunders fall ? " God is slack " reply the thought- 
less; " his warnings are intended merely to frighten 
us ; he does not really regard our sins, or intend to 
punish them." But Peter gives a different answer. 
" God is not slack," he says, "as some men count 
slackness." And Peter should know. If ever a man 
had tempted Providence, it was he. He had been a 
rough fisherman, of an inflammable temper and not 
above profanity on occasion. Yet he was spared to 
join the company of Christ's disciples. And in that 
goodly fellowship he had thrice denied his Lord ; yet 
Jesus gave no heed except to "turn and look upon 
him." That glance had in it all the potency of 
heaven's lightnings ; but for Peter it was fraught with 
the utmost tenderness. He must have known how it 
was written, "If ye seek me, I will be found of you; 
but if ye forsake me, I will cast you off forever." 
Yet he forsook his Lord and was not cast off. And 
this is the man who says, " God is not slack concern- 
ing his promises, as some men count slackness." 

But if this unpunctual administration of affairs be 
not "slackness," what is it? 

First : It is not due to Ignorance on the part of God. 
He is fully cognizant of our sins. It is said that when 



THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. l6l 

the Romans saw the eyes of their great statue of Jupi- 
ter covered with spiders' webs, they gave themselves 
up to an abandon of vice, saying, " He doth not see, 
neither doth he regard us. " But God's eyes are never 
dimmed. He neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. O the 
eyes of the Lord! " They run to and fro through all 
the earth to behold the evil and the good. " ' ' All things 
are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom 
we have to do." He needs no detectives to spy upon 
us. He needs no bloodhounds to trace his fugitives. 
If we take the wings of the morning and fly unto the 
uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall his hand 
hold us. He hears our faintest whisper in the solitudes. 
He knows the secret imaginations of our hearts. No, 
it is not because he is unaware of our sins that he 
fails to visit immediate retribution upon us. 

Nor, secondly, is it because of Indifference on his part. 
It cannot be said of him, "He does not care/' 
The School of Epicurus said, "The God we worship 
is a large god — too busy with the affairs of universal 
government to heed our peccadillos. He presides 
over the splendid feasts of Olympus. He wheels the 
worlds around their orbits. We are but little people ; 
what cares he for us ? " Our God, dear friends, is 
so great that he gives heed to infinitesimals. He 
cannot be in different to our ill-doing. He knows 
what sin has done; how it has ruined souls, desolated 
homes, overthrown governments, depopulated the 
world and peopled hell. He is a jealous God. His 
wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness 
and unrighteousness of men (Rom. i, 18). He is 
"angry with the wicked every day." 

Nor, thirdly, is it because he is Impotent to punish sin. 



1 62 THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 

His name is the Almighty. It is as easy for him to 
destroy a world as for me to crush an insect. Not 
long ago a well known infidel took occasion, in a 
spirit of bravado, to blaspheme publicly in this city, 
challenging God to strike him dead. Why did not 
God take him at his word and destroy him on the 
instant ? Was it because he could not ? No, in- 
deed ; but rather because a man spared is a more 
Impressive proof of the divine greatness than a man 
slain. A like thing happened on a larger scale when 
Korah and his followers offered incense of blas- 
phemy in the Jewish camp. And the Lord said to 
Moses, " Speak unto the congregation that they de- 
part from the tents of these wicked men. Then 
Korah and his followers stood by themselves swing- 
ing their impious censers, and, behold, the earth 
opened her mouth "and they and all that apper- 
tained to them went down alive into the pit." Thus 
has the Lord on occasion demonstrated once and 
again his power to inflict an instant penalty on sin. 

Why then are the unrighteous spared? The case 
stands thus: They have offended God; his warning 
has been spoken; instant retribution would be obvi- 
ously just; God knows their guilt, is deeply grieved; 
is able to punish them ; yet they live. Let us turn to 
Peter's observations respecting this matter: 

I. He says the delays of Providence are to be ac- 
counted for by the fact that God " is longsuffering to 
us-ward." The name by which he revealed himself 
to Moses hiding in the cleft of the rock, was this: "I 
am the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I will be 
gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show 
mercy." And the name by which he revealed him- 



THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 1 63 

self from the cloud on Mount Sinai was this: "The 
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuf- 
fering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and trans- 
gression and sin, and that will by no means clear the 
guilty." His word is Yea and Amen; but he can 
afford to wait: since, as Peter says, " one day is with 
him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
day." He never " loses his temper" as men do. He 
experiences no caprice, no paroxysms of wrath. He is 
slow to anger because " the eternal years are his." 

If we could stand beside his throne for a moment, 
and see with his eyes the sin and shame, the vice and 
uncleanness, the rebellion and blasphemy — if all the 
roofs were lifted and all men's hearts made naked 
and open before us as before him — we should cry, 
" Burn up the world, O Lord ! Consume these rebels 
who have so defied thy mercy and offended against 
thy holy law! " But this is because our ways are not 
as his ways, nor our thoughts as his thoughts. He 
spares until the resources of his mercy are exhausted. 
He is the God of an infinite patience. 

II. "He is not willing that any should perish" He 
knows the meaning of that word " perish." He will 
not that any shall go forth into the region of eternal 
shame and remorse " where their worm dieth not and 
the fire is not quenched." " As I live, saith the Lord 
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; 
but that the wicked turn from his way and live." 
Could anything be more pathetic than his lament 
over Ephraim ? ' ' O Ephraim, how can I give thee up ? 
How can I make thee as Admah and Zeboim? " It is 
like the wail of a mother at the death-bed of her child. 



164 THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 

If further proof of God's unwillingness that any 
should perish be required, we shall find it in his 
exceeding great and precious promises: "Him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out"; — "The 
Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that 
heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst come; 
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely"; — "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden 
not your hearts"; — "Turn ye, turn ye; for why will 
ye die ? " 

III. He desires "that all should come to repentance" 
Here is the kernel of the whole matter. This is the 
objective point of the divine longsuffering. It is God's 
purpose that every man shall have opportunity to 
repent up to the full limit of his own immeasurable 
love; so that as many as possible may turn from their 
unrighteousness, accept the generous terms of grace 
and enter into life. 

Once on a time a man made himself notorious as a 
highwayman along the "Bloody Way" from Jerusa- 
lem down to Jericho. God saw his deeds of violence, 
his murders and robberies, yet spared him. The 
civil authorities, however, were not so "slack"; they 
pursued the bandit, arrested him, placed him on trial 
and sentenced him to death. It was during his execu- 
tion that the reason of the divine longsuffering was 
made manifest; for in the very article of death he 
repented, saying, "Lord, remember me!" 

A wilful girl forsook her home once on a time and 
abandoned herself to a shameless life. She fell lower 
and lower until she became a common drab; so that 
society cast her out and pure women withdrew their 
garments as she passed. But God had not aban- 



THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 1 65 

doned hope of her. She heard a voice one day in 
the street of Capernaum, saying, "Come unto me all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." Her sins had palled upon her; she was 
"weary" of her vicious pleasure; she was "heavy 
laden " with fear of retribution. She sought the 
presence of the Merciful One, anointed his feet with 
spikenard and consecrated her life to him. 

A lad, reared in the rabbinical schools of an Asian 
city, became possessed of an evil spirit of fanaticism. 
He went up to Jerusalem, joined the straitest sect of 
the Pharisees and ultimately became a member of the 
Sanhedrin. He was appointed an inquisitor to search 
out the followers of Jesus and hale them to judgment 
and death. His heart was wholly in his work. His 
guilt was none the less heinous because he thought 
he was doing his duty; yet the Lord spared him in 
prospect of the time when he should see, in a sudden 
burst of light from heaven, the divine beauty in the 
face of Christ, and penitently cry, " Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ? " 

What, now, are the practical conclusions ? To begin 
with, "// is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
living God." The wrath of an irascible man is not so 
much to be dreaded as the calm indignation of one 
who, naturally patient, has been provoked too long. 
What then must be the anger of the patient God ? 
" When he shall whet his sword, who shall stand be- 
fore him?" His mills grind slow, but they grind 
woe. It is written that the incorrigibly wicked shall, 
in the judgment, call upon the hills to fall upon them 
and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. What 
a paradox is there — " the wrath of the Lamb ! " 



1 66 THE DELAYS OF PROVIDENCE. 

And again, There can be no room for complaint on the 
part of those who shall ultimately incur the penalty of sin. 
God's love shall be vindicated in their doom. The 
warden of one of our penitentiaries relates that on 
the cell of a prisoner, who had been executed for 
murder, he found written everywhere along the walls, 
"God is love." It is not easy to surmise what 
prompted that inscription; but this I know, the 
regions of eternal night must be filled with irrepress- 
ible tributes to the goodness of God. The lost know 
the meaning of God's long delays. They know their 
doom is just, and confess that the scepter of the Lord 
is a right scepter. 

Finally, what shall be said of the inexcusable folly of 
those who persist in going down to death ? Why should 
any man be lost ? God so loved the world that he gave 
his only-begotten Son to save it. The shadow of the 
cross is over us. The Spirit strives with all. The 
hands of Christ are stretched out still. 

It is said that when Alexander besieged a city he 
kindled a beacon on a neighboring hilltop and an- 
nounced that all who surrendered while it burned, 
should be spared. The beacon of God's mercy has 
been burning long for some of us. We have heard 
the invitations of the heavenly mercy, lo ! these many 
years. Shall the tokens of the divine longsuffering 
to us-ward be vain as the roses that dropped upon 
Faust from heaven, turning to fiery coals as they fell ? 
Is it not time to make an end of our folly ? I beseech 
you, beloved, by the mercies of God, that ye be recon- 
ciled unto him. Now is the accepted time; and to-day 
is the day of salvation. 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

" Peter saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto 
him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow thou me."— 
John 21 : 21, 22. 

In the dusk of the morning a company of fisher- 
men were cruising in their little boat along the mar- 
gin of Lake Gennesaret, now and then letting down 
their nets. A solitary figure was seen walking along 
the shore. The men whispered to each other, " It is 
the Lord." And Peter could not wait; he girt his 
fisher's coat about him, leaped in and swam ashore. 
The others landed presently from the boat; and all 
gathered about their Lord. 

It was a picturesque scene: The sun was rising 
over the trans-jordanic heights, tinging the snowy 
crown of Hermon with a red glory, while a golden 
mist rose slowly from the western sea. In the midst 
of the group stood Jesus, and nearby Peter, in 
dripping garments, his face now fallen on his breast. 
He had forgotten for the moment, that when he last 
saw Jesus he had thrice denied him : now the bitter 
recollection overwhelms him. Thrice the Master 
asks, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" 
Never was heedless lad more embarrassed by stern 
catechist than this bold fisherman: yet with down- 
cast eyes he answers thrice, "Thou knowest that 

(i6 7 ) 



l68 WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

I love thee." And with vast compassion his Lord 
reopens to him the three doors of the apostolic office, 
saying " Feed my sheep." Then an announcement 
of grave import falls from his lips: " When thou 
art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and 
another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou 
wouldest not." It was a prophecy of martyrdom. 
Did Peter blanche or tremble when the cold shadow 
fell over him? Nay; this was what he had longed 
for: to be baptized with his Lord's crimson baptism, 
to drink of his bitter cup. Then Jesus added, " Fol- 
low me! " He had said it twice before but never 
under such circumstances, nor with such grave sig- 
nificance. It was as if he said, "Come, Peter; the 
servant is not greater than his Lord. Enter into the 
fellowship of my shame and agony. On to the 
cross! On to the martyr's crown! " 

At this point occurred the discordant note. Peter, 
turning about and seeing John, was moved to in- 
quire, " Lord, and what shall this man do? " John 
had been his fellow fisherman, his comrade in the 
Mount of Transfiguration, his familiar friend in the 
retinue of Jesus. It was not strange, therefore, that 
in the unveiling of his own tragic death, he should 
inquire, "How about this man?" And Jesus said, 
ii If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
Follow thou me ! " 

Was this to reprove his curiosity? I think not. 
There are, indeed, state secrets into which we must 
not pry: but curiosity was not a Petrine fault. Nor 
yet did Jesus intend to rebuke the jealousy of his 
disciple, as some suppose. For Peter was too large 
a man to look on John, "the beloved disciple," with 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE ? 169 

green eyes. I can discern in the Master's words no 
rebuke at all, but rather the announcement of a great 
truth ; to wit, The solitariness of an earnest life. 

A man comes into the world by himself; alone he 
bears his burdens, endures his sorrows, meets his 
obligations; and alone he must stand in judgment 
before God. It behooves him, therefore, to know 
his personal responsibility. That was a great dis- 
covery of Descartes, when, walking by the bank of 
the Danube on a November night, he saw himself 
endowed with sovereign will and conscience as against 
all fashion and authority, and was moved to cry 
aloud, "Ich bin ich! " It is a momentous hour when 
that discovery dawns on any soul. It lifts us to the 
solitary dignity of Manhood created after the image 
of God. 

I. As to our personal Responsibility in the formulation 
of a Creed. This is of supreme importance; for a 
man's life and character are founded on his faith. 
It has been observed that when our forefathers were 
casting about for a suitable day to be observed as 
a national anniversary, they did not select that 
whereon the Thirteen Colonies bound themselves 
together by formal enactment, but rather the day 
wherein the great principles of civil and religious 
liberty were announced in the historic Declaration. 
This was strictly philosophic, since government rests 
not on formal enactments nor on solemn covenants, 
but rather on eternal, rudimental principles. So a 
man's creed or code of religious tenets is the true 
foundation of his life and character. Thus it is 
written, u Asa man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

How, then, shall we formulate our creed ? By ref- 



170 WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

erence to tradition ? Due weight must indeed be 
given to the results of historic controversies, to the 
calm deliverances of councils and the wise opinions 
of the fathers. But these must not be permitted to 
prevent the exercise of individual judgment, or blind 
the eyes to progressive revelation. There is a very- 
solemn and inspiring truth in what John Robinson 
said to the Pilgrims embarking at Delft-haven, "Re- 
member that new light shall ever spring forth from 
the word of God." 

Are we, then, to derive our religious beliefs from 
current opinion ? It is greatly to be feared that many 
are content to seek no further. The press is the pur- 
veyor of passing thought ; and there are those who 
imagine that, in adopting its suggestions, they are 
keeping abreast of the age. But no ready-made or 
custom-made opinion can fit a self-made man. A 
passing thought is poor stuff to place in the founda- 
tion of an enduring life. 

We are Christians. That means, among other 
things, that we have taken Christ to be our prophet, 
or instructor in spiritual things. He and his Book are 
ours ; what more would we have ? His word is ulti- 
mate to those who follow him. This matter of relig- 
ious belief is between himself and us. It is of com- 
paratively little consequence what the fathers said or 
what our contemporaries are saying. On one occa- 
sion Jesus asked of his disciples, "What do the peo- 
ple say of me?" And when they replied, "Some 
say one thing and some another," he added signifi- 
cantly, "But what say ye?" At that point Peter 
stood forth and witnessed his good confession : " Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God! " It was 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 171 

for that very proposition that Athanasius in the 
third century faced the Arians, with the memorable 
words, "Athanasius contra mundum." He was opposed 
by scholars, threatened by Constantine, displaced 
from his episcopal office, thrice exiled ; yet he stood 
for his belief and was willing to stand alone against 
the world. This is the position for any self-respecting 
follower of Christ. It is himself against all authority 
and current opinion, if need be. His responsibility 
is to Christ alone, who said, " What is that to thee ? 
Follow thou me." 

II. So, also, as to Rules of Conduct. The path of duty 
is not a plain thoroughfare but a road with many 
divergent patns ; so that we are ever at the cross-roads 
asking, ' ' Which way? " I set out afoot in London once 
for Spurgeon's Tabernacle. As. I supposed myself to 
be nearing the place, I ventured to ask a passer-by, 
" Which way to the Tabernacle? " He replied, "Fol- 
low the crowd." A little further on I met with the 
same advice, "Follow the crowd." In due time I 
reached my destination. But in questions of casu- 
istry it is not safe to follow the crowd. " Thou shalt 
not follow a multitude to do evil." 

One of the questions by which we are:, unfortu- 
nately, apt to determine our personal duty is, "What 
will the world say ?" Duty is distinctly a personal 
affair; conscience must determine it. When Frank- 
lin was at the court of France he found that all his 
fellow-ambassadors powdered their hair. He ven- 
tured, however, to preserve his own simple habit; of 
which Brancroft says, "It acted like a spell." A 
man's influence is always enhanced if he follows the 
bent of his own conscience in defiance of criticism. 



1^2 WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

It is no sin to be singular. The three Babylonish 
youths were alone in great Babylon in refusing to 
doff their bonnets before the great image; the outcry 
did not harm them. 

Another question by which we frequently solve 
our ethical problems is, "What is the fashion?" 
The increasing sin of Sabbath desecration may be 
largely traced to this source. We are prone to jus- 
tify ourselves by saying, "They all do it." Here 
again the Master's word is imperative: " What is that 
to thee? Follow thou me." 

Let it be observed that some things are always 
right, under all circumstances and for everybody; for 
example, love toward God and love toward man. 
And some things are always wrong for everybody and 
under all circumstances; such as impiety, meanness 
and selfishness. Let it be observed further that 
some things may be wrong for others and right for 
you; and contrariwise, some things are right for 
others and wrong for you. Circumstances alter 
cases. As Macaulay has said, "Right and wrong 
actions are not always to be distinguished by marks so 
plain as those which distinguish a hexagon from a 
square. " For want of considering this fact we indulge 
in much unjust fault-finding. " Judge not that ye be 
not judged," said the Master; " for with what judg- 
ment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you 
again." We must carry our own burdens of duty; 
each for himself must meet before his own conscience 
all questions of responsibility. Paul says, "Who 
art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his 
own master he standcth or falleth." In the sphere 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 173 

of duty as everywhere it behooves a man to attend 
strictly to his own business. And there is a tremen- 
dous truth in the old proverb, " Those who live in 
glass houses should not throw stones." 

Our Lord put it on this wise: " How wilt thou say 
to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine 
eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou 
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye ; 
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out 
of thy brother's eye." This is the law against cen- 
soriousness. It does not mean that we are to be tol- 
erant of wrong or falsehood ; it does mean that we 
have no jurisdiction over the consciences of our fellow- 
men. He is a tiresome man who has no definite views 
of right and wrong: but Paul Pry is a great nuisance. 
The proper course for a man to pursue is to let his 
own light shine so that others shall see his good works 
and glorify God. Do right, my friend, and worry 
less about the conduct of others. Do right and let 
the crowd sweep by. The world's fashion is of less 
moment than to keep one's conscience pure. Hear 
the Master saying: "What is that to thee? Follow 
thou me." 

At a critical period of our Civil War the President 
was severely criticized for his conduct of affairs. A 
member of his cabinet suggested the propriety of 
making a formal explanation. His answer was, " If 
we begin that, we might as well close the shop. I 
am doing the best I can, the best I know how; and I 
intend to keep on doing so. If the end justifies me, 
all my traducers will be silenced; if not, a legion of 
angels from heaven, all testifying to the purity of my 
motives and the wisdom of my course, would make 



T74 WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

no difference. I must keep on following my con- 
science and leave the issue with God." 

III. As to service in the Kingdom of Christ, A place 
is here appointed to every earnest man. There are 
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there 
are diversities of administration, but the same Lord. 
To one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, 
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 
but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as he will. " This being 
so, it should be obvious that every man is responsible 
to God alone for the faithful discharge of duty. 

Yet we are ever disposed to criticize those who do 

not adjust themselves to our methods. No doubt 

there were some who found fault with " blundering 

Peter," who yet scarcely lifted their hands to advance 

the cause. As I was coming to my study yesterday 

on the Broadway line, the car was somehow displaced 

from the track. The passengers stood around, eager 

but unable to help. There was, however, one fussy 

gentleman with cane and gloves, who showed an 

eloquent acquaintance with the entire business of 

traction. He felt wholly competent to criticize 

and advise the gripman and all concerned in the 

affair; but I perceived that when all was over this 

fussy gentleman had not soiled his gloves. Good 

people, let us cease finding fault. The world would 

go far better if all would keep sweet and abide in 

their appointed places. Give others credit fordoing 

their best. Or if they fail, what then? The Master's 

word is still, " What is that to thee? Follow thou me. M 

And while prone to criticize others, we are blind to 

our own shortcoming and malfeasance. We make no 

..v-l i 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE ? 175 

scruple of standing idle in the market place. If re- 
minded of the proverb, " Nine-tenths of the work of 
the Christian church is done by one-tenth of its mem- 
bers," we comfort ourselves with the thought that 
we are in a respectable majority. The Master goes 
by with the sweat of the harvest on his brow, and 
after him the laborers with sickle in hand. Alas that 
we should be so little disturbed by his call, " What is 
it to thee that others are indolent ? Follow thou me!" 

At the beginning of the present century the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Scotland was much exercised as to 
the duty of foreign evangelization. The controversy 
waxed warm. The proposition was opposed on various 
grounds. At length Dr. Erskine, ex-officio member 
of the Assembly, seated close by the pulpit in recog- 
nition of his advanced years and honorable service, 
rose and said, with a deep, tremulous voice, "Mod- 
erator, rax me yon Bible, wull ye ? " He took the 
volume, opened it, and read aloud these words: 
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto 
every creature"; and adding, "Thus saith the Lord," 
he sat down. It was enough. Christ is our prophet ; 
his word in matters of faith and conduct is ultimate 
to those who follow him. No argument can stand 
against his precept. No authority, no array of 
multitudinous influence can have a feather's weight 
against " Thus saith the Lord." 

A word now to non-Christians. The injunction of 
the Master was addressed primarily to his disciples; 
but it is not without significance for those who do 
not profess to follow him. The plea most frequently 
advanced for this default is the inconsistencies of 
Christians. It is said, "They do not live up to their 



176 WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 

profession." This is true. We are not what we ought 
to be, and nobody knows it better than ourselves. 
In fact, however, we are not in the church because 
we profess to be good people, but only because we 
are trying to be good. We know our infirmity and 
feel the need of association for mutual help. The 
best we can say for ourselves is, " We are not what 
we ought to be; we are not what we mean to be; but 
by the grace of God we are what we are." 

But the criticism is not true as intended by those who 
make it. The inference they draw is that there is no 
benefit in the fellowship of service or in the open con- 
fession of Christ. The falsity of that conclusion may 
be easily demonstrated. Let all the church mem- 
bers of New York be drawn up in line; let all others 
be arrayed in an opposite line; then walk between 
them, my friend, and pass judgment. We are humbly 
willing to abide the issue. 

Furthermore if the criticism were true, this would 
nevertheless not affect your personal responsibility. 
The question is a purely personal one. If Christ 
be the Son of God, it is your duty to believe in 
him. If he said of the Eucharist, "Do this in 
remembrance of me," it is your duty to partake of 
it. If he said, "Let your light shine before men," 
it is your duty to confess him. And if all the so-called 
Christians on earth were arrant hypocrites, your duty 
in these premises would remain the same. "What is 
that to thee? Follow thou me." 

No excuse for holding aloof from the Christian 
profession can be considered valid which will not 
stand in the Judgment. A fine showing a man would 
make on that occasion who, when God asks, " What 



WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? 177 

has-t thou to say for thyself, in that thou didst not 
follow the Christ?" should answer: " Yonder is 
Noah who lay drunken in his tent; yonder is Peter 
who thrice denied thee; yonder is David who sinned 
in the matter of Bathsheba. " No, friend, you would 
not dare. The sophism is too plain. No man refuses 
good money because there are counterfeits abroad. 
How shall you absolve yourself from sinning against 
your own conscience by t,he fact that professing 
Christians are not what they should be ? 

And, finally, as to the application of this particu- 
lar sermon : It is not for the man in the next pew. It is 
our infirmity, that we know too well our neighbors 
need. How natural it was for David to grow indignant 
with the landlord who robbed his poor tenant of the 
one ewe-lamb that had eaten of his bread, drunk of 
his cup and lain in his bosom. "As the Lord liveth/' 
he cried, "the man that hath done this thing shall 
surely die." But how hard it was to take the appli- 
cation to himself, when the prophet added, "Thou 
art the man! " Take the truth to yourself, my friend; 
let God's word find you out. Cease asking, How 
about this or that man? As to your concern with 
truth and duty, there is but one man, yourse]f. Alone 
you live; alone you must die; alone you must answer 
for the conduct of this life before the Judgment-bar 
of God. 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER 

"And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, 
named Rhoda {Greek for Rose or Rosa). And when she knew Peter's voice 
she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood 
before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly 
affirmed that it was even so."— Acts 12, 13-15. 

The place is familiar but the circumstances are 
strange. This is the upper room in Salome's house, 
where Jesus was accustomed to meet his disciples. 
It is fourteen years, however, since he was crucified 
and many things have happened in the interim. His 
followers in Jerusalem were permitted for a time to 
worship unmolested : but now the sword has been 
unsheathed. James, the faithful pastor of the Jeru- 
salem church, has been beheaded. Peter has been 
thrown into prison and is reserved for death. It is a 
fear-stricken company that assembles in the upper 
room. They are come together to pray Peter out of 
prison. Can they do this ? It remains to be seen. 
They unite their supplications with suppressed ear- 
nestness, for there is danger in the air. The doors 
are locked; and Rhoda the handmaid is stationed at 
the outer wicket. 

Meanwhile Peter is in prison, guarded by four 
quaternions of soldiers and bound with a double 
chain. He is as secure as resolute foes can make 
him. But no walls are thick enough, no chains are 
strong enough, no guards are watchful enough to 

(178) 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 179 

hold a man prisoner when God resolves to free him. 
The excitement of the day has wearied Peter and he 
rests, lulled to sleep by a good conscience, despite the 
fact that this may be his last day on earth. 

In the upper room not far distant his comrade, 
John, is leading the sorrowful disciples in prayer: 
" O Lord, leave not thy servant in the power of the 
enemy, but deliver him for thy great mercy's sake!" 

On a sudden a great light shines in the dungeon; 
the hand of an angel is laid upon Peter and a voice 
says, " Arise up quickly." (In the upper room John 
is pleading, "O thou who hast promised never to 
leave nor forsake thine own, be present with thy 
beloved servant, we entreat thee, and bring him 
forth out of darkness and the shadow of death!") 
As Peter struggles to his feet, his chains fall off; 
the angel says, "Gird thyself and bind on thy san- 
dals ; cast thy garment about thee and follow me." 
He obeys as one in a dream ; the great doors open 
before them noiselessly as if their bolts were drawn 
by unseen hands; the last one opens and closes be- 
hind them, and they are standing under the starlit sky. 
(In the upper room the petition rises: "O God, 
thy ways are not as our ways, nor thy thoughts as 
our thoughts; we are at our wits' end, but the thing 
which is impossible with men is possible with thee.") 

Then the angel vanishes. Peter rubs his eyes, won- 
ders, comes to himself. Whither now shall he go ? 
There is but one place; to the upper room where he 
knows the disciples are praying for him. (The voice 
of John is pleading: " O Lord, we believe thy prom- 
ises; thou art the hearer and answerer of prayer; 
we beseech thee restore our beloved Peter to us.") 



l8o RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 

A knock at the door! How it startles them. Is it 
an officer come to summon another of their num- 
ber to prison and death? Who next? Their faces 
are blanched ; the voice of prayer is hushed. Another 
knock, and a distinct voice without. The portress 
comes running in, breathless with excitement, crying, 
" It is Peter; he stands before the gate!" This is 
too good to believe. " The damsel is mad," they 
say. They have been praying for Peter's deliverance, 
and hoping against hope; the answer to their prayers 
has come in person, is knocking at the gate. O ye of 
little faith, unbolt the door and let your answer in ! 

Let us leave Peter at the gate and the disciples 
within — eager, questioning, still hesitating to believe, 
— while we fasten our eyes on Rhoda, the gatekeeper, 
who stands there as an embodiment of faith. She was 
well named " the Rose; " for among those disciples, 
older and cleverer than she, there is not one that 
renders a sweeter service: it is indeed the very 
attar of devotion, acceptable as frankincense before 
the gracious God. 

I. Observe the Simplicity of her Faith. It was a great 
truth that Jesus uttered on one occasion, when, 
placing a child in the midst of his disciples, he said, 
" Except ye become as this little one, ye shall in no 
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." 

The question is as to the Philosophy of Prayer. 
The parties to the controversy are those outside the 
upper room, who believe not, those within who have 
been driven to their knees, and Rhoda the gatekeeper. 

The discussion runs on this wise: " Our first ob- 
jection to prayer," say those without, "is the immo- 
bility of God. His plans and purposes are from all 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. Iol 

eternity. It is inconceivable that he should be turned 
aside by the breath of his creatures. The imprison- 
ment of Peter is but part of an Eternal plan; it is 
therefore a vain impertinence to pray for him. ,, — To 
which those within reply, " God is indeed immutable; 
but immutability is one thing and immobility another. 
He is not like the Sphinx, that abides in imperturbable 
serenity while the storms of centuries sweep by. He 
has a heart that can be touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities; his name is ' Our Father'; and as a 
father pitieth his children, so he pitieth them that 
fear him." — But while the argument goes on in this 
manner, the little gatekeeper has merely this to say: 
" You have been praying for Peter; and, lo, he is at 
the door; shall I run and let him in ? " 

" Our second objection to prayer," say those with- 
out, "is the inviolability of nature's laws. There is a 
fixed order of the universe, and it cannot be sup- 
posed that the voice of an humble petitioner should 
interfere with it." — "But this inviolability," argue 
those within, " must be understood with reference to 
higher law. If I lift my hand, I violate the Law of 
Gravitation ; if I put down my foot, I violate the Law 
of Momentum ; if I shield my head from the pelting 
rain, I violate the Law of the Elements : but this is 
because I am myself the depository and agent of a 
higher law. If this is possible to me, it is surely 
possible to God who is above all." — And still the 
weightiest contribution to the argument comes from 
Rhoda, who can only say, " You have prayed, and 
your answer is waiting; shall I admit it ? " 

" But thirdly, " say those without, " while denying 
the objective benefit of prayer, we are quite willing to 



1 82 RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 

admit its reflex influence. If you go into the moun- 
tain like Moses to commune with the Infinite and 
Eternal One, it is reasonably certain that you will 
come down with your faces shining. " — l 'Aye, but there 
is something more," say those within; "else what is 
the meaning of assurances like this : c Ask and it 
shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; 
knock and it shall be opened unto you ' ? Such 
promises are indeed given under certain conditions, 
as that the petitioner must have faith, must urge his 
suit with humble importunity, must assume an atti- 
tude of filial acquiescence." — But Rhoda, still waiting, 
can only say, "I do not understand your argument; 
only this 1 know ; you have been praying for Peter 
long and earnestly, and Peter is knocking at the 
door. Shall I admit him ? " 

O sweet simplicity of faith! The Rose takes what 
God gives and asks no questions. It receives the air, 
the sunshine and the benignant elements of the soil, 
assimilates them and transmutes them into beauty 
and fragrance. Would that all our hearts were like- 
wise open to truth! 

" If our faith were but more simple, 
We should take him at his word, 
And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the beauty of the Lord." 

II. Here is an illustration of the Reliability of Faith. 
I hoar one saying, " Simple folk like Rhoda may re- 
ceive dogmas and promises without question; but for 
thinking men and women an ounce of reason is 
worth a pound of faith." This suggestion, however, 
rests on a misunderstanding. What is faith? Is it 
to take things on hearsay? Is it to believe without 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 183 

evidence? By no means; " faith is the substance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 
Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. It yields the 
strongest certitude because it rests on the surest 
foundations. Faith is stronger than reason. Its 
argument is more irrefutable than any in the Baconian 
philosophy. The inductive method reasons from 
facts to a conclusion : and what can be more satis- 
factory? " Facts cannot lie," they say. It is true 
that one fact cannot lie; but when you bind two facts 
or more into a bundle of premises, the nexus is your 
own and the conclusion may be false. There is no 
sophism in facts, but there are tremendous possibili- 
ties of sophistry in reasoning from facts. Let it not 
be supposed that the faith of Rhoda was credulity ; 
far from it. 

(1) To begin with, she had the evidence of her 
senses. She had heard the voice of Peter without the 
gate. All great spiritual truths are substantiated in 
like manner. Coleridge heard God in the Vale of 
Chamouni as really as one hears the roll of thunder. 
I have seen regeneration and so have you. Jerry 
McAuley was regeneration made visible and walking 
about among men. We have felt immortality; felt it 
as really as if spirits from the unseen world had 
clasped our hands. What else are these " intimations" 
of which philosophers have written and poets sung ? 
We are drawn as with invisible cords. The unseen 
world is all around us. 

(2) Rhoda had, furthermore, the testimony of the 
divine word. As an inmate of the home of Salome, 
she must have been acquainted with the Scriptures 
and familiar with the promises. There is a sense in 



I84 RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER* 

which a promise, with authority behind it, is more 
satisfactory than a visible and tangible fact. Here is 
a bar of yellow metal said to be worth ten thousand 
dollars, and here beside it is a government bond for 
the same amount. Which will you choose ? The 
shining bar? Nay; take heed how you trust your 
eyes ; for many a countryman has been deceived by a 
"gold brick." You will of a certainty choose the 
government bond ; since there is unquestioned value 
in a promise to pay issued by a nation with a vast 
exchequer. Thus faith is more reliable than sight. 
The little gatekeeper might, indeed, have been de- 
ceived in Peter's voice, but she was quite confident 
of the veracity of God. 

(3) She had, still further, the response of her inner 
consciousness. This is called the ultimate test of truth. 
A man is not loyal to himself, if he rejects the voice 
of divinity within him. It is a grave mistake to say, 
" I will believe only that which can be verified by the 
physical senses." Here was the fault in Tyndall's 
prayer-test. A photographer who has just taken 
your portrait may, yielding to your insistence, ex- 
pose the sensitive plate to the light; but in doing so 
he will confim your doubt instead of dispelling it, 
since the picture, affronted by the test, vanishes in 
an instant. God and the great invisible truths which 
center in him can not be subjected to mathematical 
demonstration. If that were possible, faith would 
be not only unnecessary; there would be no place 
for it. 

We have one form of evidence which Rhoda had 
not; to wit, the testimony of a great cloud of wit- 
nesses. We must decide here between negative and 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER, 185 

positive testimony. On the night of the 13th of 
November, 1898, there was a meteoric shower. You 
were probably asleep and did not observe it. Will 
you believe that there was such a shower, or not ? 
There are hundreds of astronomers who say that they 
watched it from their observatories. There are tens 
of thousands of others who sat up all night to ob- 
serve it. On the other hand, there are multitudes 
who are prepared to testify that they saw nothing 
of it. What then, will you conclude ? 

There are millions of people on earth who certify 
that they have had personal communion with God, 
that they have experienced the mystery of regener- 
ation under the power of his Spirit, that the blood 
of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from the shame 
and bondage of sin, and that they have received an- 
swers to prayer again and again. It is respectfully 
submitted that the credulous man is not he who 
accepts this mass of evidence, but he who prefers the 
negative testimony of those who were asleep and did 
not see the falling stars. It is incredible that rational 
men should not give immense weight to the word of 
hosts of well accredited witnesses who testify with 
reference to the great truths of the Christian religion : 
"That which we have heard, that which we have 
seen with our eyes, that which we have looked upon 
and our hands have handled of the Word of life, 
declare we unto you." 

III. We perceive here, still further, the Comfort of 
Faith. It was a sorrowful company that surrounded 
Rhoda in the upper room. They were overwhelmed 
with fears and misgivings; the traces of tears were on 
their cheeks. The little maid alone was happy among 



1 86 RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 

them. Dear, absent-minded Rhoda! So transported 
was she by the sound of Peter's voice that she neg- 
lected to open the door and let him in. 

There are four stages of progress from spiritual 
pain to peace. I see a man walking along a country- 
road, alone, shivering in the cold, muttering to him- 
self in bitterness of soul, " Who will show us any 
good?" This is Unbelief. — I see him again pausing 
before a gate, looking toward the lighted windows of 
a home in the distance, listening to faint sounds of 
music, wondering, fearing, scarce venturing to hope. 
This is Doubt. — I see him now coming down the gar- 
den path and looking in at the windows ; he notes the 
fire on the hearth and the well provided table, the 
dancing and merrymaking in which he has neither 
part nor lot. This is Knowledge. — I see him once more 
in his place at the table ; there is a ring on his finger, 
there are shoes on his feet, he is eating of the Father's 
bread and drinking of his wine. This is Faith. The 
joy of life is not in perceiving things, but in appro- 
priating them. The comfort of our religion is not in 
gazing at objective truth, but in making it ours. 
The secret of heaven is in the possessive pronoun ; it 
is to say of Christ, "He is my Saviour"; of his 
cross, "This is my salvation " ; of his people, "These 
are my friends "; and of his glory, " I shall have part 
in it." 

We have thus pursued the argument of faith plus 
reason as against reason alone. Truth yields not to 
the demand of philosophers, but of little children. 
We must stoop to conquer. Let Faith and Reason 
go side by side to Calvary. Ask, "What is the mean- 
ing of this cross?" Reason replies, "The cross is 



RHODA, THE GATEKEEPER. 187 

two transverse beams of wood on which malefactors 
are slain." But Faith says, "The cross is the wis- 
dom and the power of God." — Ask, "What is this 
superscription?" Reason answers, "It is written, 
4 Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews/ and is in three 
languages, Greek, Latin and Hebrew." But Faith 
says, "This is the King of the Universal Israel; my 
Lord and my God." — Ask, "What is this blood?" 
Reason replies, "Blood is a thin colorless liquid, 
known as plasma, filled with infinitesimal disks or 
corpuscles, involving somehow the mystery of life." 
But Faith says, "This blood is the love of God, the 
mercy of God, the power and pity of God ; there is 
life in apprehending it, there is heaven in a glimpse 
of it, there are oceans of bliss in a drop of it! " 

Let us away, therefore, with cold Reason that re- 
fuses to accept what lies beyond the finger tips, and 
welcome Faith. Stand out of our light, ye mere 
analysts and naturalists, who darken counsel by 
words without knowledge. One hour of Rhoda's 
simple faith in the great verities is worth a thousand 
cycles of proud groping among the shadows of doubt 
and unbelief. There is many an old woman in the 
chimney corner, with her Bible on her knee, who sees 
further along the great vistas of truth than all the 
Magians who lean on their own understanding. 
There is many a blind beggar who lifts his sightless 
sockets toward heaven and penetrates more deeply 
into the invisible than those who boast of their ac- 
quaintance with the schools. What is man whose 
breath is in his nostrils that he should reply to God's 
manifesto? An earthworm raising its head before 
the royal chariot ! A mote in a sunbeam, with an 



1 88 RHOBA, THE GATEKEEPER. 

infinitesimal glint of light borrowed from the sun, 
prating of itself as a rival luminary. 

We have kept Peter waiting at the door too long. 
He enters, and his friends can doubt no more. He 
clasps their hands and kneeling down makes recog- 
nition of God's goodness. They had, indeed, been 
seeing through a glass darkly but now face to face. 
No more will they question, no more discuss the Phi- 
losophy of Prayer. That problem is forever solved 
for them. 

One greater than Peter waits at the door asking to 
be admitted that he may reveal to us, in clear and 
indubitable form, all the sublimities and profundities 
of the spiritual life. He knoweth the Father, and 
none other can, except those to whom he shall reveal 
him. He knoweth heaven and immortality, and the 
glory that eye hath not seen nor ear heard. He 
knocks and calls ; but, alas, we prefer to linger in the 
company of our doubts and misgivings. He knocks 
and calls: we know his voice. Why not withdraw 
the bolts, admit him and behold Truth, face to face 
and eye to eye? Here is his word: "Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock; if any man will open unto 
me, I will come in and sup with him and he with me." 



THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS 

" From henceforth let no man trouble me ; for I bear in my body the marks 
of the Lord Jesus."— Gal. 6, 17. 

An old soldier was at bay. His opponents were 
pressing him hard. At this time Paul was worn and 
weary. It was not easy to be patient under false 
accusation, particularly when his accusers were from 
the house of avowed friendship. The same had 
occurred a year before when certain ones in the 
Corinthian church had impugned his teaching and 
called his apostleship in question. It was on that 
occasion that Paul stooped, as he says, to "play the 
fool" in self-defense. His plea is one of the classics 
of eloquence: 

11 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my 
folly; and indeed bear with me. I say again, Let no man 
think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that 
I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak 
it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confi- 
dence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, 
I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye 
yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a 7nan bring you 
into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, 
if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I 
speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. 
Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold (L speak foolishly), L 

(189) 



I90 THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 

am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they 
Israelites ? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham ? so am 
I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a foot) I 
am more; in labors more abundant \ in stripes above 
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the 
Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice 
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered 
shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in 
journeyings often, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine 
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 
city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, 
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are with- 
out, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the 
churches" (2 Cor. xi. 1, 16-28). 

And now he was under fire again, and the poign- 
ancy of the attack was heightened by its coming from 
his dear missionary churches of Galatia. The Juda- 
izers there, not content with antagonizing his teach- 
ing as to divine grace, had challenged his credentials 
But who were these recent recruits, and what were 
their noble achievements, that they should turn upon 
him ? It was now twenty-six years since he had been 
converted on the way down to Damascus, and they had 
been years of hard fighting. He had earned his knight- 
hood ; where was their service chevron ? He knew the 
smell of prison mold: had felt the tang of the leaden- 
pointed scourge. He had been tanned by the suns 
of Asian deserts; had been swept about in the moun- 
tain-torrents of Macedonia; had drifted, helpless and 
forlorn, upon the open seas. He was familiar with 
hunger and cold, with poverty and persecution. It 



THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 191 

was hard under these circumstances to be assailed by 
professing Christians. The Epistle to the Galatians is 
his masterly reply. He presents here a calm argu- 
ment for the Doctrine of Grace, which his opponents 
had sought to controvert; the great doctrine which 
Luther characterized as "The article of a standing 
or a falling church." As he approaches the imputa- 
tions made upon his apostolic authority, the fire of 
just indignation waxes hot, until, in his closing sen- 
tences, he outvies the fervid eloquence of Desmos- 
thenes in his oration on " The Crown." What 
righteous scorn is here! What just contempt! 
" Hands off!" he cries. Noli me tangere ! Shall 
carpet-knights assail a tried and proven soldier of 
the cross? "From henceforth let no man trouble 
me ; I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus ! " 

Our inquiry has reference to these "marks of the 
Lord Jesus." What were they? The word is stig- 
mata] there are suggestions of practical value in it. 

I. The apostle speaks as a Slave, The word doulos, 
"slave," used frequently in Paul's writings, is bor- 
rowed from the teachings of Christ. It means abso- 
lute ownership, such as was shown by the puncturing 
of the master's name, with hot needles, in the fore- 
head. Paul thinks of himself as no longer his own, 
having surrendered all faculties and powers of body 
and soul to the domination of Christ. "If ye have 
aught against me," he says, "go to Jesus, whose I 
am and whom I serve. I bear his marks in my fore- 
head. To him alone am I responsible. To my own 
Master I stand or fall." 

It is apparent that here is the Christian's coign of 
vantage as against all criticism whatsoever. But it 



192 THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 

is a high position to take, and quite impossible 
except as we have submitted ourselves to Jesus Christ 
in an absolute surrender. Thus is it written: "Ye 
are not your own; ye are bought with a price. For- 
asmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with 
corruptible things, as silver and gold ; but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blem- 
ish and without spot." Have we been subjugated 
thus? And do we gladly and triumphantly avouch 
our Lord's control? Do we bear his marks of owner- 
ship ? If so, it matters little what man may say 
against us. 

II. But Paul speaks, also, as a Devotee. The god- 
mark was familiar in those days. It 'is still to be 
seen among the Hindoos, the cabalistic sign of Siva 
or Vishnu on the forehead. It tells at what altar a 
worshiper pays his devotions, to whose temple he 
brings his daily offering of rice. It is an open con- 
fession, as if he said, "This is my god." But you 
need not go to India to find the god-mark. All men 
wear it in their lives and characters. Observe it as 
you pass along the street. Here is one whose rest- 
less eyes betray his consecration to Mammon. Here 
is another whose countenance is seared with the red 
brand of Bacchus; and others wear the mark of the 
Beast in their sensual features (Rev. 13, 16). 

If a man believes in the true God, it is his plain duty 
to declare it; but confession does not wait upon an 
open manifesto. No more is it a matter of fringes 
and phylacteries. Get once into the divine presence 
and you must, like Moses, go your way with a shining 
face. Jacob met God by the brook Jabbok and there 
his thigh was touched, the sinews shrank and the 



THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 1 93 

man thenceforth went limping on his way. In like 
manner Saul of Tarsus, as he journeyed to Damascus 
met God face to face, was blinded by a sudden flash 
of his glory, and ever afterward bore the trace of 
that interview in his blinking eyes. There is a real 
sense in which God leaves his mark on every man 
who comes into close, vital touch with him. Our 
walk and conversation is a plain avowal of spiritual 
allegiance. "Thy speech," said the high priest's 
servants to Peter, " bewray eth thee." 

III. And Paul speaks as a Soldier. His loyalty was 
vindicated by honorable scars. The members of 
the dueling corps of the University at Heidelberg 
are proud to display in their slashed features the 
sign-manual of the sword. But the service of Christ 
is no mere flourish of foils: it is a real campaign on 
the high places of the field. "We wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against 
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 
Our foes are said to be "the world and the flesh and 
the devil." The man who goes forth against these 
with a courageous heart is quite sure to be marked 
for life. 

Let a man array himself against the world, and it 
will straightway smite him in the face. Have you 
ever defied its fashion or gone athwart its custom ? 
Then you were stigmatized as "singular" or "ec- 
centric": or if in dead earnest, you were character- 
ized as a bigot or a fanatic. 

He who makes a brave struggle against the flesh, 
that is, his own lower or baser nature, must bear the 
tokens of that struggle with him. But they are 



194 THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 

honorable scars: for "he that ruleth his own spirit 
is greater than he that taketh a city. ,, It is no small 
matter to get the better of your envy, your avarice, 
your evil habit, your hot temper. This is "hard 
pounding'', as Wellington said of Waterloo; and no 
man gets off unscathed. If you have seen Tissot's 
pictures of the Magdalene, you will remember how in 
one she stands in her doorway, decked with jewels 
and radiant with smiles. In the other, both smiles and 
jewels are gone; her face wears a serious look: and 
the sparkling brightness of her eyes has given way to a 
calm light which betrays the peace that passeth under- 
standing. She has fought a great fight and won back 
her womanhood. She has entered into the fulness of 
the sweet promise: " To him that overcometh will I 
give to eat of the hidden manna; and I will give him a 
white stone, wherein is a new name written, which 
no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. " 

And what shall be said of him who confronts the 
devil face to face ? To deny the personality of this 
prince of the power of the air is to betray a frivolous 
mind. He is a man of shallow experience who can- 
not say, "I have measured swords with him." The 
early masters were fond of representing Christ in the 
Wilderness as dwelling among wolves and hyenas and 
lions ; but there was one shadowy presence with him 
during those awful days, more real than ravenous 
beasts. He was led of Satan hither and thither and 
tested at every point, ever replying u Get thee behind 
me!" And when those days of temptation were 
over, his physical strength was so reduced that angels 
must needs come and minister unto him. Thus it 
is with every man who meets the adversary ; he has 



THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 1 95 

the sympathy of One who can be touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities, having been tempted at all 
points like as we are, who holds out the promise of a 
splendid triumph and a glorious reward : but when 
that conflict is over its marks are evermore upon him. 

IV. Still further ', the apostle speaks as a Sufferer for 
Jesus' sake. There are fiery trials in Christian experi- 
ence which sear the features. Pain drives its plough- 
share in furrows across the brow. These also are 
marks of the Lord Jesus, "if so be that we suffer 
with him. " 

Much of our affliction is merely passive. There 
are many who lie on beds of languishing, racked and 
twisted with anguish, sustained by the presence of 
One who taketh note of their patience and "putteth 
their tears into his bottle " (Psalm lvi.8). All serv- 
ice is not active service. He is a faithful follower 
of Christ, who, able to do nothing but lie and cough, 
does that contentedly for Jesus' sake. 

But the thought of the apostle goes deeper. He 
speaks elsewhere of his desire "to fill up that which 
is behind of the afflictions of Christ"; as if he felt 
himself to be in some wise a participator in the re- 
demptive pain of his Master. It is true that we may not 
pass into the deep darkness of Gethsemane to drink 
of our Lord's purple cup of vicarious death; for He 
treadeth the wine-press alone; but we may abide in 
the outer shadow of the olive-trees, wakeful and 
prayerful, sympathizing with him. The passion of 
Christ is a passion for souls; and this must be the 
passion of his people as well. If thus we suffer with 
him, we shall also reign with him. It was in view of 
this phase of suffering that he said, "If any man 



196 THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 

will come after me, let him take up his cross and 
follow me." Our cross gets its significance from 
the analogy of his cross. It is a work to be volun- 
tarily taken up by every one who follows Jesus, for 
the sake of delivering souls from the bondage and 
shame of sin. He who has apprehended this truth 
can say, like Paul, "I am crucified with Christ "; 
and again, "I protest that I die daily. " He need 
not cut the nail-prints in his hands as St. Francis 
did; the world will put the stigmata upon him. But, 
blessed is the Christian who, like Simon of Cyrene, 
can feel the cross of his Lord resting upon him. 

V. Once more, the apostle speaks as one who Labors in 
his Master s field. The hands of the toiler are marked 
with callous ridges. A farmer is proverbially the 
proudest of men. Why not ? He knows himself to 
be a producer, not merely a consumer of the earth's 
substance. He plants a handful of corn and reaps 
a sheaf; he helps to feed the hunger of the world. 
To similar work the Christian is called, in the Mas- 
ter's words, "Say not it is yet four months and then 
cometh the harvest; lift up your eyes and see! The 
fields are already white unto the harvest." It is for 
us, who follow and serve him, to thrust in the sickle 
and reap. 

The late James Tyson of Australia, a multi-mil- 
lionaire, on being asked what he proposed to do 
with his money, replied: "I have never troubled my- 
self about that. As for the money, I care nothing 
for it; my pleasure has been in the game of making 
it. I set out in my early manhood to fight the des- 
ert. I have put water where there was no water; 
and beef where there was no beef. I have put 



THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 197 

fences where there were no fences ; and roads where 
there were no roads. Nothing can undo what I have 
done. I have fought the desert, and I have won ! " 
It is, indeed, a great satisfaction for a man to feel 
that he has made an industria. success. But let us 
exalt that thought to a higher level, and rejoice in 
that we are called to be "laborers together with 
God." Our supreme joy should be, not in our 
escape from sin's penalty, nor in the hope of reward, 
but in glorious service for its own sake. Happy is he 
who can finally show the marks of faithfulness, the 
callous ridges made by sickle and flail, the evidences 
of unremitting and cheerful toil in fellowship with 
his Lord. 

I see the coming of a great multitude to heaven's 
gate. They are the Overcomers, such as have grown 
weary in the service of Christ. They cannot keep 
step in the ranks as militiamen do, for they are vet- 
erans, worn and crippled. They have been through 
forced marches and fierce conflicts; they bear the 
marks of the Lord Jesus. Their uniforms are torn 
and tattered, and covered with dust. They carry a 
red-cross banner, sun-stained and winter-worn and 
riddled with tempests of lead. But as they ap- 
proach, with labored step, faint and limping, the 
angels and archangels lean over the parapets to 
give them welcome. Make way for the Veterans! 
And now the gates roll back and One comes forth 
to meet them; One who hath upon his vesture and 
upon his thigh a name written, King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords: One who was seen upon the heights 
of Bozrah with garments dyed red, whose name is The 
Mighty to Save. On his brow are the scars of a 



I98 THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS. 

thorny crown ; in his lifted hands are the nail-prints. 
The great Veteran comes forth to meet and welcome 
his own. " Come, ye blessed of my Father! Ye 
have suffered with me," he says, "and ye shall also 
reign with me. Ye have been faithful unto death, 
receive ye the crown of life. Enter into the joy of 
your Lord ! " Was there ever a triumphal entry like 
that? Were ever more exultant hearts than theirs ? 
Were ever prouder men ? Would you, my friend, 
be among them ? Why not ? 



SILENCE IN HEAVEN 

14 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven 
about the space of half an hour." — Rev. 8, i. 

A door was opened into heaven and the dreamer 
stood in the presence of the Great Assize. On the 
throne, beneath an overarching rainbow, sat One 
whose glory was "like a jasper and a sardine 
stone," to whom a great multitude of angels and 
archangels did obeisance, crying, "Holy! Holy! 
Holy!" In his right hand was a sealed book, the 
Record of the Divine Administration of Human 
Affairs. A voice was heard, "Who is worthy to 
open the book, and to loose the seals thereof ? " And 
the dreamer says, "I wept much, because none was 
found worthy to open the book." But one of the 
elders said, "Weep not; behold, the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and 
to loose its seven seals." Then this Hero of Redemp- 
tion took the book, amid ascriptions of praise, "Thou 
art worthy! for thou hast redeemed us by thy blood 
out of every kindred and tongue and people and 
nation, and hast made us kings and priests unto 
our God!" 

At the breaking of the first seal the White Horse 
of peace was revealed; and Shelomith sat upon him, 
wearing a diadem and armed with a bow. — The second 

(199) 



200 SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 

seal was opened and the dreamer saw the Red Horse 
of war, his rider armed with a dripping sword. 
There was the confused noise of battle, and garments 
rolled in blood; the clang of weapons; the fierce cry 
of victory, mingled with lamentation. — At the open- 
ing of the third seal appeared the Black Horse of 
famine. He that sat upon him had a pair of balances; 
and a voice proclaimed, "A measure of wheat for a 
penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and 
see thou hurt not the oil nor the wine! " — The fourth 
seal was opened, and, behold, the Pale Horse of 
pestilence. The earth is strewn with corpses and the 
stench of corruption is in the air. — At the opening of 
the fifth seal a great Altar appears, and under its 
shadow the souls of the martyrs. And they cry 
with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and 
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood ?" — 
The breaking of the sixth seal reveals a terrific scene 
of confusion. The earth reels and totters, the sun is 
black as sackcloth of hair and the moon is as blood ; 
the stars of heaven are falling as when a fig-tree cast- 
eth her untimely figs; the heavens are rolled together 
as a scroll; kings and potentates are crying to the 
mountains and rocks, " Fall on us and hide us! " 

At this point comes a parenthetic vision. An angel 
is seen wearing the signet of Jehovah, with which, 
going abroad through the earth, he marks the fore- 
heads of the righteous. Then, as in a dissolving 
view, the scene is shifted and a multitude of saints 
triumphant are seen arrayed in white robes and with 
palms in their hands; and one of the elders an- 
nounces, "These are they which came up out of great 
tribulation and have washed their robes, and made 



SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 20t 

them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are 
they before the throne of God, and serve him day 
and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the 
throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger 
no more, neither thirst any more: neither shall the 
sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb 
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, 
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. " 

Then the seventh seal was opened; and " there was 
silence in heaven about the space of half an hour"; 
that is, the dreamer waited for such a period expect- 
ant, but no vision came and no word was spoken. 
Silence! The harpers on the sea of glass stood lean- 
ing on their harps; the elders, and the angels and 
archangels ceased from their ascriptions of praise. 
Silence ! Silence in the High Court of Heaven. 
Silence as on a battle-field when the conflict is over 
and the dusk of evening falls. 

Why this silence ? Because there was nothing to 
say. The opening of the seventh seal revealed the 
mystery of the Divine Administration of Human 
Affairs ; and the denouement was so satisfactory that 
all questioning and disapproval were put to shame. 
What was revealed we cannot say; but it convinced 
the assembled multitude of the absolute wisdom and 
goodness of God. 

The world is noisy with controversy. The air is 
full of whys and wherefores. Our lesson is an algebraic 
problem, in which we are ever perplexed by an un- 
known factor; but at the opening of the seventh seal 
the x will be reduced to known terms, and our be- 
wilderment will cease. 



202 SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 

I. The Problem in its larger form is called History; 
that is, God's hand in universal affairs. Not every 
man can write history. David Hume was disqualified 
by reason of his failure to perceive the development 
of a divine purpose in the world. He was a compiler 
of facts; fortuitous events, bound together like a 
bundle of fagots. He saw the shadows of the Apoca- 
lypse, peace and war, famine and pestilence, galloping 
fast like riderless horses on a desolate field of battle. 
But as to any " philosophy of history " he was not 
competent to frame it. 

For the clear solution of the problem we must await 
the final apocalypse; but the centuries thus far have 
revealed some indisputable facts. One is, that a defi- 
nite plan pervades the present order. Nothing hap- 
pens; all things are preconcerted; all work together 
in a progressive scheme. — Another fact is that all 
events center in and radiate from the cross. What 
we call civilization is merely its effulgence. The 
limits of civilization and Christendom are co-exten- 
sive. The voice of Jehovah is to be heard above all 
the confusion of passing events, saying, "'I will de- 
clare the decree: i Thou art my Son; this day have I 
begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession.'" — And still another fact is that there 
are no real reverses in Christian progress. Everthing 
is going right ; century by century, year by year, day 
by day. Events are clearly, irresistibly moving on 
toward the restitution of all things. 

I have sometimes stood on the seashore when it 
seemed impossible to determine whether the tide was 
going out or coming in. But let me wait awhile and 



SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 203 

the tide will speak for itself. It advances, leaves its im- 
press in a lace-like outline on the beach for a moment, 
and then recedes. And so again and again, making 
no apparent headway: yet I must surely retreat as 
the tide rolls in. There are those who deny the 
cumulative influence of the Gospel, saying, "There 
is no real progress. The thing that hath been shall 
be; and there is nothing new under the sun." Yet 
there has not been a year within our memory when 
they have not been obliged to shift their position to 
avoid the overwhelming logic of events. 

The law of progress is as sure as gravitation. If 
there be a momentary arrest, it is only for the re- 
gathering of force. A man who had always dwelt 
in darkness would be greatly bewildered if brought 
forth to see the day break. What would this mean to 
him? A tremulous shimmer in the east; a flaming 
arrow shot upward ; another and another; then ghosts 
and specters flying noiselessly as if from an unseen 
bowman; now arrows flying thick and fast; now 
crimson fingers stretched aloft, as of some radiant 
angel; the glories brightening, fading, brightening 
again; now a shining forehead followed by a resplen- 
dent face; the unseen Bowman is at hand, and "joc- 
und Day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 
Such a conflict of light and darkness would be wholly 
bewildering to one unfamiliar with it; to one who 
did not know the end from the beginning as we do. 
The eyes of faith, as well as the logic of experience, 
are needed to assure us that the progress of truth 
and righteousness is as this shining light which 
shineth brighter and brighter to the perfect day. 

Yet there are doubts to be solved and questions to 



204 SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 

be answered, and we must needs await the opening 
of the seventh seal. "He calleth to me out of Seir, 
c Watchman, what of the night ? ' The watch- 
man said, ' The morning cometh and also the 
night!'" But when the curtain is lifted at last, 
we shall be awestruck by the convincing tokens of 
God's wisdom in the procession of events. It will 
appear then that the ups and downs of history were 
alike in the interest of progress, and we shall see the 
divine glory shining through all. 

In the meantime we are always in danger of dark- 
ening counsel by words without knowledge. Carlyle 
speaks of " that chaotic hubbub in which men's souls 
run to waste." I preached in a country church last 
summer where I could see through the open door a 
group of young people in the porch; their suppressed 
voices and laughter were an interruption to the calm 
current of thought. Far better would it be for our 
faith could we withdraw from the noisy diversion 
of argument. There are larger truths to be learned 
in the closet than in the forum. " The world is too 
much with us." 

II. Let us turn now to the more personal phase 
of the problem ; that is, Providence. For Providence 
is merely history with an emphasis on the personal 
factor; it is God's hand in my affairs and yours. 
And here we observe a like confusion. The riderless 
horses run up and down in our changeful lives. We 
recognize the general principle of compensation; but 
the law is in question because of numberless excep- 
tions. The fabric seems all threads and thrums. 
The righteous man is abased while the wicked flour- 
ishes like a green bay-tree. Justice is out of joint. 



SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 205 

Was Koheleth right when he said, " The wise dieth 
as the fool, and there is no profit. All is vanity and 
vexation of spirit" ? Or is there something yet to be 
revealed before the problem of Providence shall be 
solved? 

Ask Worldly-wiseman and he will overwhelm you 
with his volubility. He holds the clew of the maze. 
Job sits in the ashes of his prosperity with potsherd 
in hand, and his neighbors come to comfort him. 
Many are their wise suggestions ; and Job murmurs : 
"If your soul were in my soul's stead, I also could 
heap up words against you and shake my head at 
you." Once and again they urge their consolations 
in vain and the afflicted man cries: "Miserable com- 
forters are ye all! " 

We open the Scriptures; and here are words of 
genuine help and comfort: "He sitteth as a refiner 
of silver"; "All things work together for good to 
them that love God"; "There remaineth a rest." 
Yet these are but glimmering lights. The whys 
and wherefores still remain. We abide in patience 
because we can do nothing else. The unknown 
factor holds the most important place in the problem ; 
and we await the time when God shall express its 
value in known terms. We remember how he said : 
"What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter " ; and again, "In that day ye shall 
know." 

Here is the true philosophy of life. We were rest- 
ive in childhood under restraints that seem quite 
reasonable now. Why was I kept at my lessons in 
school when the birds were singing and the fields 
were green? Why must I be kept at my boyish tale 



f 



/ 



206 SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 

of bricks when the show was passing along the 
streets, with the gilded band-wagon in front and the 
lads of the village following after ? Why was I allowed 
to read only Peter Parley when the others were read- 
ing Sylvanus Cobb ? Why was I shut in the closet 
for a peccadillo, for such a little thing ? Ah, now I 
see. " When I was a child I thought as a child." I 
said many things in those days that would not bear 
the test of later wisdom. We are but children after 
all. God's thoughts are not as our thoughts; one 
day he will share his thoughts with us. The develop- 
ments of the future will satisfy and silence us. 

The man who wrote " God moves in a mysterious 
way," had set out for Blackfriar's Bridge, in melan- 
choly mood, to drown himself. He wandered to and 
fro, puzzled in the labyrinth of streets, until the mer- 
ciful Lord brought him to himself. He returned to 
his apartment, fell upon his knees in gratitude, and 
then arose and wrote: 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform; 
He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 
" Deep in unfathomable mines 
Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up His bright designs, 
And works His sovereign will. 
" Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head. 
"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
But trust Him for His grace; 
Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face. 



SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 207 

14 His purposes will ripen fast, 
Unfolding every hour ; 
The bud may have a bitter taste, 
But sweet will be the flower. 

u Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan His work in vain: 
God is His own Interpreter ', 
And He will it plain" 

What then ? Let us talk less and believe more. Isaac, 
meditating in the fields at eventide, gets nearer to the 
truth than men in noisy arenas of debate. The most 
provoking man in Pilgrim's Progress is Mr. Talka- 
tive. God has many truths for listeners, but few for 
the garrulous. He sows in fields apart, where chat- 
tering crows are ever watching for the scattered seed. 
The doctrine of the Incarnation has been discussed 
in historic councils with scanty results. But once it 
pleased God to reveal it to a woman in such wise as 
never before or since; and it is written of her, " Mary 
kept these things in her heart and pondered them. " 
God has messages of duty, also, for you and me ; but 
they can scarcely be received or apprehended amid 
the strife of tongues. A prophet knelt on the sum- 
mit of Carmel, with his head between his knees. A 
mighty wind swept over; but the Lord was not in the 
wind. The earth shook and trembled beneath him ; 
but the Lord was not in the earthquake. The forests 
glowed and crackled in a mighty conflagration around 
him ; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after 
that a still small voice said, " What doest thou here, 
Elijah? " Faith is fostered thus in quiet hours. God 
reveals himself to those who come apart with him. 

If you, my friend, have discovered aught of the 



208 SILENCE IN HEAVEN. 

Lord's secret, let it be as a sweet confidence between 
you and him. There are some things to speak aloud 
and others to cherish in the breast. It is written, 
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him: 
and he will show them his covenant. " What the Lord 
whispers to his chosen, in the inner place of his pavil- 
ion is but the faintest prophecy of that which shall 
ultimately be revealed in explanation of his wise 
dealings with us. It is recorded that as Alexander 
the Great was reading a letter, he detected his favorite 
Hephaestion looking over his shoulder; whereupon 
he uttered no reproof but significantly placed his 
finger on his lips. God's sweetest revelation to our 
souls is incommunicable. Men caught up into the 
third heaven see things " which it is not lawful to 
utter." The great truth is convincing beyond all 
words. Wherefore, let us be swift to hear, slow to 
speak. Speech is silver; but silence is golden. The 
essence of practical theology is here: "Be still and 
know that I am God." 



"WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE 
STANDETH " 

11 In the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stand- 
eth."— Proverbs 8, 2 (R. VJ. 

In the Book of Proverbs — which is a dramatic 
presentation of the duties and responsibilities of 
human life — you have observed a figure passing in 
and out among the madding crowd, of kindly face 
and friendly speech. She is described as having in 
her right hand length of days and in her left hand 
riches of honor; " her ways are ways of pleasantness 
and all her paths are paths of peace." Her name is 
Wisdom, and her purpose is to counsel and admonish 
those who are unmindful of their own good. Now 
in the gateway, where merchants do congregate; 
now with the crowd surging along the streets ; anon, 
at the crossing of the ways, she stretches forth her 
hands, warning, exhorting, promising, pleading: 
" My voice is unto the sons of men. O, ye simple, 
understand wisdom ; and ye fools, be of an under- 
standing heart! " 

We have come to the sanctuary, each by his own 
road and going his ain gait. Are we quite sure we 
have been going right ? Let us hear the call of 
Wisdom to a calm consideration of life's responsi- 
bilities and issues. Here, " where the paths meet, she 

(209) 



2IO " WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH. 

standeth. " All readers of Dickens are familiar with 
Seven Dials, in London : it is a center where streets 
converge, like the hands on a dial or the spokes of a 
wheel. One midnight I stood there, bewildered: 
knowing well by what thoroughfare I had come, but 
questioning, " Which way now?" Let us pause 
here as at Seven Dials and consider. We are desirous 
of reaching the highest possibility of character and use- 
fulness; but are our faces set thitherward? " There 
is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
end thereof are the ways of death." Here is the 
possibility of an irreparable mistake. Let us, there- 
fore, look around us, and at the meeting of the Seven 
Paths of Life enquire, Which way ? 

i. I see yonder a broad thoroughfare, — The Street 
of the Breadwinners. All who journey there are bear- 
ing burdens. They are honest people; but O how 
weary and troubled ! What are they doing ? Toil- 
ing to make both ends meet; struggling to keep the 
wolf from the door. And where are they going ? To 
shops, factories, offices ; and after that ? Alas ! they 
seem heedless of the outlook. They are worn and 
weary plodders, with no light in their eyes, no 
spring in their step. These are the people who make 
the work-a-day world go round. The heavens are 
open above them; but their faces are downcast and 
they do not see. They rise with the sun and, after 
making their tale of bricks, go joylessly to bed. 
Weary; O, so weary and heavy laden ! Is a man then 
no better than a horse or an ox ? Is life worth living 
at this rate ? 

But I see, going in and out among them, a Fellow- 
craftsman with a shining face and enheartening words. 



" WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH. " 211 

The sweat of labor is on his brow: under his arm is 
a wooden plow which he has mended at his shop. 
His hands are as the hands of a breadwinner; but his 
voice is the voice of Wisdom : " O sons and daughters 
of toil, know ye not that the kingdom of God is 
among you ? Life is not circumscribed by the nar- 
row walls of our workshops. Lift up your eyes and 
see; the heavens are open; ye live forever! It is 
yours to dream dreams and see visions of the eternal 
life. Be laborers together with me in the service of 
truth and righteousness. Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

And alas, the many heed him not. How sordid 
their lives, and how hopeless! Their backs are break- 
ing under burdens; and their hearts are breaking as 
well. All their energies are put into their lower 
tasks, They live like beasts of burden, and they die 
as galley slaves go scourged to their dungeons. No 
heaven above ! No life beyond ! Is life worth living 
in that way ? 

II. But here is another thoroughfare; The Golden 
Way. It is paved with gold; a golden mist is in the 
air. Those who journey here are not content with a 
mere livelihood; they long for fortune, affluence, 
opulence. They have set out to win the yellow prize. 
They know no god but Mammon ; before him they 
bow and do obeisance. 

Some are young and hopeful. The fever of the 
quest is in their veins, auri sacra fames. They are 
just "getting their hand in." If any such are pres- 
ent to-night, let them consider the wisdom of getting 
their hand in. Do you know how monkeys are cap- 
tured in Algiers ? A gourd is hollowed out, baited 



212 "WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH. " 

with rice and placed in a convenient tree. The silly 
creature reaches in, grasps the rice, struggles to be 
free, and is captured because it refuses to let go. The 
secret of getting rich without sorrow is in knowing 
when to open the hand and let go. 

And others in this Golden Way are in the midst 
of the hurly-burly. They have learned the Midas- 
touch, so that all their investments turn to profit. 
The glittering coin before their eyes shuts out the sun 
and stars of heaven. The love of earthly good has 
blinded them to the eternal sublimities. Are they 
happy ? Aye; unless they stop to think. 

Others of the Mammonites have grown old and re- 
tired. They have little to do but repose in easy 
chairs and cut off coupons. They ride along the 
Golden Way in open carriages, enjoying the fruit of 
their labors. They are clothed in purple and fine 
linen, and fare sumptuously every day; but life's 
candle is burning to the socket. They set out years 
ago to conquer wealth, and they have won. They 
have thought of gold by day and dreamed of gold by 
night. They have sighed for gold, have lived for 
gold, have filled their bags and vaults and pockets 
with gold — and, alas! there is not one little pocket in 
a shroud. 

For, shading our eyes and gazing afar to the end of 
the Golden Way, we see a highwayman, grim and 
merciless, who meets and lays a heavy hand upon 
them, crying: "Strip! Disgorge! Your money and 
your life!" And, lo! they vanish, cold, naked, pen- 
niless. They had made their wills; now they have 
left all. 

III. Let us turn our eyes, now, to the Path of Glory, 



"where the paths meet, she standeth. 213 

leading up yon steep mountainside. Not many jour- 
ney there, but they are choice souls. If their names 
were called, you would have no difficulty in recog- 
nizing them; for they are writ large on the world's 
muster-roll. There are scholars, with their arms full 
of parchments; scientists and philosophers; military 
heroes crowned with wreaths and decorated with 
badges of distinction; kings and potentates whose 
scepters have shaken the earth. A noble procession 
of ambitious souls! 

But observe, as they journey, how they all arrive 
at the same place. It is an imposing cemetery in the 
far distance, where monoliths, carved with honorable 
epitaphs, are gleaming in the sun. On this very day 
a funeral cortege is passing thither, with tolling of 
bells and the sobbing of a bereaved nation. Who goes 
now to his last resting-place ? * The President of the 
French Republic. As the hearse, with its sable 
plumes, passes under the great archway, I read there 
this inscription : "The Paths of Glory lead but to 
the Grave/' And we remember the words of the 
Preacher: " Better is the sight of the eyes than the 
wandering of desire; this is also vanity and vexation 
of spirit." 

IV. I see another road; broad and inviting and 
beaten with many footsteps; its name is Vanitas 
Vanitatum. Here go the pleasure-seekers; some 
reeling and staggering, many marked with the red 
brand of sensuality. The voice of Folly, leering and 
ogling from her door-way, is heard, " Turn in hither! 
Stolen waters are sweet." These votaries of the flesh 
are sowing wild oats and must reap the harvest of 

* President Faure died on the Friday preceding this discourse. 



214 ''where the paths meet, she standeth." 

eternal shame; they are sowing the wind and 
must reap the whirlwind. " While we live, let us 
live/' they cry; " for what is better than that a man 
should enjoy the ways of his heart and the sight of 
his eyes ? " The air is filled with laughter; crisp and 
hollow laughter, "like the crackling of thorns " 
(Eccl. 7, 6). I remember a dreary day on the prairie 
when, the night closing in with a falling temperature, 
a group of huntsmen gathered slender twigs and 
wisps of grass and kindled them for warmth. It was 
a ceaseless task, for their fuel was no sooner lighted 
than, crackling for a moment, it was gone. It made 
music while it lasted ; but it died so soon ! So, says 
Solomon, is the laughter of fools. They have, in 
very truth, their labor for their pains. 

And at the end of the merry pilgrimage, what then? 
The Judgment. See the flashing in the heavens; hear 
the roll of thunder. The mummers have had " a good 
time "; has it never occurred to them that it might 
be wise to provide for a good eternity ? They have 
reached the end of the road, still keeping up the pan- 
tomime of folly. Let them off with their dominoes 
now ! God is not mocked ; whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap. And we hear the voice of the 
% Preacher, "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and 
'"4 delight thyself in the ways of thy heart and in the 
sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these 
things God will call thee into judgment." O the un- 
speakable shame of one who, chasing a butterfly, 
leaps into hell ! 

V. And yonder runs the Road of the Merit-makers. 
They are a serious folk who journey this way. They 
are sensible of sin and would earn their way into 



"where the paths meet, she standeth." 215 

heaven. They are like prisoners who, fettered with 
ball and chain, work out their sentence on the turn- 
pike. It is a thankless task: so much to be done and 
so little to show for it. Mistaken souls, who have 
not learned the largesse of heaven or the glorious lib- 
erty of the children of God ! 

I see many priests and pontiffs here, with bells 
and pomegranates on their robes, and broad fringes 
and phylacteries. They are fasting, paying tithes, 
intoning long prayers, forgetful that God looketh on 
the heart. 

Here, also, go troops of flagellants, barefoot, 
clothed in sackcloth, lashing their bodies for the sins 
of their souls. They are sad-faced and sad-hearted; 
making merit, all. So have I seen the silent monks of 
La Trappe toiling in the fields, offering no greeting to 
each other or the passer-by but " Remember death! " 

And here are legalists, earning their way to 
heaven by good works; unmindful that "by the 
deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified." What 
does all this come to ? Not long ago in the Treasury 
Department at Washington a one-hundred dollar note 
was received which had been executed with a pen. 
It was calculated that three months of constant labor 
had been expended on this counterfeit. When fin- 
ished, it was worthless, and its maker was arrested 
in endeavoring to pass it. Such will be the outcome 
of all spurious forms of merit-making. The product 
is nil. Merit, indeed, cannot be made by mortal 
man. There is no merit, no legal tender at the 
Judgment, save the righteousness which is by faith in 
Jesus Christ, who having expiated our sins on Calvary, 
imputes his righteousness to those who love him. 



2l6 " WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH. " 

VI. And behold Via Novissima ! There go the 
newsmongers; who, like the Athenians, do nothing 
but hear or tell some new thing. They are engaged, 
apparently, in opening up new avenues through 
trackless forests and over untraveled wilds; and their 
song is ever " Ring out the old! Ring in the new! " 

All these are agreed that tradition goes for naught. 
It is enough for them to say of any doctrine that the 
fathers believed it. They call the scientists to aid 
them in proclaiming a new god, — Law, Energy, or 
All-pervading Soul; it little matters what, so long as 
there is a clear departure from the teaching of him 
who said, "When ye pray, say Our Father. " And a 
new Bible, too; a new Bible by all means, since the 
world of progress has outlived the old fashioned Book 
which our fathers and mothers loved and touched 
with reverent hands. And a new Christ; yes; the 
edict has gone forth from one our Theological Semi- 
naries that the time is ripe for " a restatement of the 
doctrine of Christ. " And yet, with all this concerted 
effort to supersede the religion of the past, has it not 
occurred to these novelty-mongers that they are go- 
ing backward and not forward? for, indeed, "there 
is nothing new under the sun." The "new depart- 
ures " in belief which are proclaimed from time to 
time, are but revamped heresies. Christian Science, 
Theosophy, the Higher Criticism are old as the 
centuries. They are shop-worn goods laid out on 
bargain counters, and, alas! there are always foolish 
folk to purchase them. Not long ago, seeing some 
"Barlow knives" in a cutler's sample case, I said, 
i i These are the sort that was popular when I was 
a boy; is there any market for them now?" He 



"where the paths meet, she standeth. 217 

replied: "O yes; there's a great sale for Barlow 
knives on the Indian Reservations. ,, So the heresies 
that pass out of fashion in one age are sure to come 
into vogue further on. It is an old world that we 
are living in, and things have been pretty well can- 
vassed, and the things which have been canvassed 
have been fairly well tried ; and tried truths are the 
truths for you and me. 

We note, also, a current demand for new morals. 
The old views of the sanctity of marriage are passing 
away in some quarters : and there are signs of 
weariness with the old forms of Sabbath observance. 
" The smart set " in society are giving Sunday musi- 
cales and conversations. But they are mistaken in 
claiming novelty for these things. A thousand years 
before the Christian Era the Lord said to Amos, 
"What seest thou?" — He answered, "A basket of 
summer fruit. ,, — "And what hearest thou? " — " The 
voice of those who cry, ' When will the new moon be 
gone and the Sabbath, that we may pursue our 
ways ? ' " On this very afternoon a secular perform- 
ance is given at the Waldorf-Astoria by leaders of the 
social left-wing. They are threshing out old straw. 
They have fallen in with the vulgar crowd who for 
centuries have sought to circumvent the divine code 
of morals. 

And such flatter themselves that they are " liberal " 
and "progressive." In reality they are but looking 
over their shoulders to a worn-out past. In blazing 
new roads through the forests, they merely make 
their way into a bog. They are reactionaries: the 
world is too righteous now, too sensible and respect- 
able, to tolerate their methods. They have yet to 



2l8 " WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH." 

learn the aphorism that "What is true is old; and 
what is not old is not true. ,, The only new thing in 
the province of religion is that of which John Robin- 
son spoke: " The new light ever breaking forth from 
the Word of God." 

VII. But there is one other way; Via Crucis. It 
was once a narrow path, and few there were who 
found it; but a great multitude whom no man can 
number journey there. The cross throws its bright 
shadow all along the way. Men and women, weary 
of sin and longing for pardon and peace, lift their 
eyes to Christ crucified, saying, "Lord, I believe!" 
Then on they go, singing, "All hail the power of 
Jesus' name." Yet singing is but an incident of their 
journey. They have a great project on hand, nothing 
less than the conquest of the world by the deliverance 
of souls from sin. In their hands are sickles where- 
with they toil in God's yellow fields. They believe 
in the Golden Age, in the coming of the King, in the 
uplifting of the race. God is saving the world by 
them. Oh, blessed copartnership of heavenly grace ! 
God and they are saving the world ; for are they not 
"laborers together with him " ? His blessing is upon 
them; his Spirit is with them; his Pillar of Cloud 
goes before them. 

" This is the way I long have sought, 
And mourned because I found it not ; 
Till late I heard my Saviour say, 
' Come hither, soul, I am the way.'" 

You may hear the lamentable sound of stumbling 
in their ranks; for they are sinners all, but, blessed 
be God, sinners saved by grace. On they go, wres- 
tling with their baser selves and rejoicing in multi- 



" WHERE THE PATHS MEET, SHE STANDETH. 219 

plied triumphs. Their ambition is to live devout and 
useful lives. Their gaze is toward the eastern skies; 
for they " love the appearing " of their Lord. They 
ask no reward of service but to hear him say, " Well 
done," and be forever with him. 

' ' This is the old Way ; * ' The way the holy prophets 
went; the way that leads from banishment." It is 
the plain Way; as Isaiah said, " An highway shall be 
there, and a way ; and the wayfaring man, though a 
fool, shall not err therein." It is the straight Way; 
beginning at the cross and ending at heaven's gate. 
See them yonder, at the far end of Via Cruds — now 
Via Lucis — passing into the great glory, singing, 
" Bless the Lord, O my soul! " 

We have tarried at Seven Dials long enough. We 
have observed the Seven Ways of Life. We cannot 
remain here; we must needs choose our path and 
move on. You will rise presently and go forth to 
meet the duties and responsibilities of another day. 
Which road will you take? " Come thou with us 
and we will do thee good. " To journey by the Royal 
Way of the Cross means the pardon of sin by the 
washing of redeeming blood ; the building up of char- 
acter by the imitation of Christ; participation in 
service with those who are lending themselves to the 
betterment of the world ; and heaven to crown it all. 
"We are traveling on to heaven above; Will you go ? 
Will you go ? " Are you not weary of the other paths ? 
The Holy Spirit speaks: "This is the way; walk ye 
in it." Shall we go forth together, then ? If so the 
cloudy pillar will lead on until, with all the ransomed, 
we shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy 
upon our head. May the dear Lord grant it. 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN?" 

" For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."— Heb. 2, n. 

A sermon was preached by a distinguished Rabbi in 
the Synagogue Emmanuel last Sabbath in answer to 
the question, " Was Christ a Christian ? " The dis- 
course, while controversial, was in a spirit of admi- 
rable courtesy. It is a pleasure to observe that a 
Rabbi can speak thus freely among us with none to 
make him afraid. Our prayer for the people whom 
he represents is that their eyes may be opened to see 
the fulfilment of the Hope of Israel: and may the 
Lord save us from Anti-Semitic prejudices. 

The Rabbi said: " All real Christianity died with 
its founder " ; and he proceeded to affirm that if Christ 
were now to return, he would not recognize current 
Christianity or acknowledge any of the existing de- 
nominations. This was his answer to the question, 
" Is Christ a Christian ? '' Let us venture to go back 
of his conclusion and also of his premises to enquire 
whether the question itself is a fair one. 

I. What is a Christian 2 The poet Young wrote, 
" A Christian is the highest style of man." In Hare's 
" Guesses at Truth " a Christian is said to be " God 
Almighty's gentleman. " The reference is obviously 
to the ideal follower of Christ. 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ?" 221 

A Christian is, to begin with, a man, subject to all 
the limitations of humanity, circumscribed by the 
common horizons of life. 

He is a nearsighted man. His eyes are holden, so 
that however sincere his desire to apprehend truth, 
he sees "as in a glass darkly." The great verities 
are mere shadows fleeing before him. He perceives 
"men as trees walking." 

He is, moreover, a sinful man. What? In spite of 
his new birth out of darkness into light? Aye. Re- 
generation is a tremendous fact indeed, but it does 
not extirpate sin. It effects a radical change in the 
ruling purpose ; it finds a man devoted to self-gratifi- 
cation, and it turns him right about with his face to- 
ward righteousness and eternal life. It arrays him 
in spiritual armor and bids him fight his way to man- 
hood, with an assurance of divine help and blessing. 
He has a hard struggle on hand ; not against flesh 
and blood, but against principalities and powers. 
His passions and appetites often get the better of 
him; down he goes; and what then? Does he sur- 
render? Ah, no! He has access to infinite resources 
of strength and encouragement; for "if any man sin, 
we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus 
Christ the righteous." To his feet again, and at it 
more bravely than ever! Meanwhile, sin is an ever- 
present though diminishing factor in his life. This 
is true of all Christians; for " if we say that we have 
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in 
us." 

He is, still further, a churchman; that is, an associ- 
ate of other penitent sinners. In his life of spiritual 
conflict and toil he feels the need of sympathy and 



22 2 "WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ? " 

longs for the uplift of mutual prayer. Another may 
feel strong enough to stand alone; but a penitent 
sinner knows his weakness. "Two are better than 
one ; for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow : but 
woe to him that is alone when he falleth ; for he hath 
not another to lift him up." Wherefore, he naturally 
and perforce turns his face toward the fellowship of 
saints. — But the question arises " Which of the nu- 
merous branches of the Church shall I join? Greek, 
Catholic or Protestant? Baptist, Methodist or Pres- 
byterian? " He suits himself. He is like one whose 
patriotism moves him to enlist in the army. Shall it 
be infantry, cavalry or artillery? What matters it so 
long as all are under one flag? So the follower of 
Christ, casting about him, says, " 1 must get into the 
atmosphere of associated prayer; must find my place 
somewhere in the great co-operative labor-guild. 
Which Denomination shall it be? " He is likely, as a 
sensible man, to decide that the best is the broadest, 
always providing the red-cross banner floats over 
it; while the worst is the one which thinks itself the 
best and cries, "The temple of the Lord are we." 

And being in the church, the Christian finds him- 
self at home. For are not all his companions, like 
himself, sinners saved by grace ? Are they not all 
strugglers, desiring to grow to the full stature of 
manhood in Christ, all coming short and making the 
same lament, " ' The good I would, I do not; and the 
evil I would not, that I do. 5 ' Sorrie I am, my Lord, 
sorrie I am ' " ? 

What shall we say then ? "Was Christ a Chris- 
tian ? " Could he fellowship with such feeble and 
imperfect folk ? But we are not yet ready to answer 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ?" 223 

until we have made a preliminary inquiry as to 
Christ himself. 

II. Who was Christ? A singular personage every 
way. 

He was a Manj yet his manhood was qualified by 
a stupendous fact; to wit, that he was also God. He 
stands solitary and alone as theanthropos. He had 
been "with the Father before the world was." He 
assumed flesh for a definite purpose; for the accom- 
plishment of that purpose he must become a veritable 
man while remaining "very God of very God." 
And, having finished his redemptive work, he went 
back to "the glory which he had with the Father 
before the world was." 

He was an omniscient Man. He knew no doubts, 
problems or questionings. He did not see truth in 
shadowy reflections, as we do, but swept the infinite 
horizons at a glance. All truth was ever present to 
his mind; indeed, truth had its primal source in him ; 
it emanated from him as sunlight from the radiant 
orb; insomuch that he could say, u Iam the Truth." 

He was a holy Man. In this he was altogether 
unique. He felt no unworthiness; knew no accusa- 
tions of Conscience; never prayed for the pardon of 
personal sin. His challenge was, "Which of you 
convicteth me of sin ? " To this his Roman judge 
replied, "I find no fault in him at all!" the man 
who delivered him to death, "I have betrayed inno- 
cent blood! " and the soldier who had charge of his 
execution, "Verily, this was a righteous man! " So 
extraordinary was the holiness of Jesus that, while 
undisputed, it has ever puzzled the ingenuity of 
scholars. How could it be ? Shall we say, "Potest non 



224 "WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ? " 

peccare, " or " Non potest peccare " ? Origen suggested 
that this singular quality was due to the fact that 
Christ's humanity was interpenetrated by divine 
virtue as red-hot iron by fire. The explanation, 
however, little concerns us, so long as the fact itself 
is conceded on all sides. He was holy, harmless and 
undefiled. His seamless robe was a symbol of his 
flawless life and character. 

The death of Jesus was as extraordinary as his life. 
Others have been crucified, but the world knows only 
one Cross. Heroes have died bravely, but never hero 
or martyr like this man. He had power to lay down 
his life, and power to take it up. He died because 
he had determined to die. He gave himself for the 
life of the world. He took the entire sin of the 
ruined race upon his great heart, which broke under 
the burden. It was considerations like these that 
moved the infidel Rousseau to exclaim, " Jesus died 
like a God ! " 

And his posthumous influence, also, is singular. For 
nineteen centuries all possible tests as of fire and acid 
have been applied to his life and character and work ; 
and the testimony of history is, "I find no fault in 
him at all." Who of all the dignitaries of the cen- 
turies can compare with him ? Call the roll, and let 
the procession of the mighties pass before us. Then 
call "Jesus of Nazareth!" and behold how the others 
shrivel like pigmies. He is the chiefest among ten 
thousand. "No mortal can with him compare among 
the sons of men." All the forces of civilization cen- 
ter in him. All the light of the nations is reflected 
from the shining of his face. 

"Was Christ a Christian'' then? A thousand times, 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN?" 225 

No! So far above is he, so far removed from all. 
The impropriety of the question is as if one should 
ask, " Was Jehovah a Jew ? " But if the enquiry be, 
" Has Christ a warm heart for his people ? " A thou- 
sand times, Yes. How do we know ? It is written, in 
connection with his farewell interview with the 
Twelve, "He, having loved his own, loved them to 
the end " ! What forbearance, what consideration 
was there! He knew their sin and weakness. He 
foresaw that Thomas would doubt him, that Peter 
would deny him, that all would forsake him in the 
bitter hour; yet he loved them to the end. 

If he were to come to New York to-day, he would 
enter into every fellowship of true believers ; not as a 
Christian, indeed, but as the Lord of all Christians. 
Their denominational name would be as nothing to 
him, if only he were assured of their love and 
devotion. 

He would come to some of our churches with a 
scourge of small cords, no doubt, to drive out much 
that justly offends him; as it is written, " Whom I 
love I rebuke and chasten. " In some, where sumptu- 
ous mummery and dumb-show prevail, he would 
gravely say, i l God is a Spirit ; and they that worship 
him must worship in spirit and in truth." In others, 
seeing too much of worldly conformity, he would say, 
" Be ye holy as I am holy! Come out from the world, 
and be ye separate, a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works. " In others, where his people have mutilated 
their Bibles and sought counsel at voiceless oracles, 
he would say, " Did ye ever hear me call in question 
the inerrancy of Holy Writ ? Shall the servant be 
wiser than his Lord ? Search these Scriptures, for 



226 "WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ? " 

in them ye think ye have eternal life and these are 
they which testify of me." 

But he would not be blind to penitence or oblivious 
of earnest endeavor. He would utter words of 
sympathy and encouragement: "Fear not, little 
flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you 
the kingdom. ,, He would take note of the purpose 
and aspiration. He would remind us of the parables 
of the leaven and the mustard seed. And without 
doubt he would stimulate our latent energies by 
calling to remembrance his great commision: "All 
power is given unto me in heaven and on earth; go 
ye, therefore, and evangelize; and, lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end." 

If he were to come to our churches to-day, he 
would doubtless address himself to many of us who 
minister in sacred things. "Preach me," he would 
say; "Preach my atoning blood ! Preach my quick- 
ening and invigorating Breath! Preach the exceed- 
ing great and precious promises of my Grace ! Why 
will ye turn aside to questions that are without edifi- 
cation? Have ye forgotten how I said, c I, if I be 
lifted up, will draw all men unto me'?" 

He would pass along these aisles and look into the 
faces of many who have been following him afar off. 
It would be as when he turned and looked on faith- 
less Peter; and we, like Peter, would go out and 
weep bitterly. He would speak to us gravely of our 
responsibilities, saying, " Ye are the salt of the earth; 
but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it 
be salted ? " and, " Ye are the light of the world; let 
your light so shine before men that they may see 
your good works and glorify God." 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ?" 227 

He would stand, perhaps, where I am standing 
now, for the vindication of his people. It is a pleas- 
ure to remember how, when his disciples frowned on 
the penitent woman who anointed his feet, he looked 
around upon them, saying, "Let her alone; she hath 
wrought a good work upon me! " He would, in like 
manner, defend the feeble and penitent, not only 
from the unfriendly criticisms of their brethren, but 
also from the aspersions of the world. For, " to 
whom shall I liken this generation? It is like unto 
children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their 
fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye 
have not danced ; we have mourned unto you, and ye 
have not lamented." 

Best of all, he woula stand here, as among his dis- 
ciples in the upper room, and make this prayer : 
i i Father, I pray for them : not for the world \ but for 
them which thou hast given mej for they are thine. And all 
mine are thine ', and thine are mine j and I am glorified in 
them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are 
in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep 
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that 
they may be one, as we are. And now I come to thee j and 
these things I speak in the world, that they might have my 
joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; 
and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the 
world, even as I am not of the world. Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
through their word j that they all may be one j as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
in us : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. " 

If these things are so, what then? First j let us be 
humbly ashamed of ourselves, since we have come so 



228 "WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ? " 

far short of the possibilities of the Christian life. The 
world is quite right in asserting that we do not live 
up to our professions. Yet let us not be discouraged, 
but gratefully confess, " I am not what I ought to be; 
I am not what I hope to be; I am not what I mean to 
be; but by the grace of God I am not what I once 
was." The gold is in the crucible: the time is com- 
ing when its brightness will reflect the Master's face. 

Second; let us not turn our backs upon any of our 
fellow-Christians, since he himself is not "ashamed 
to call them brethren." He is very jealous for them, 
insomuch that it is written, " He that toucheth them, 
toucheth the apple of his eye." Knowing our com- 
mon infirmities, let us be tenderly affectionate one 
toward another. If any have gone backward, let us 
prayerfully seek to restore them. And let us love 
the Church Universal; for though constituted of im- 
perfect men and women, it is nevertheless the con- 
sort of Christ. One of these days he will lead her 
"without spot or blemish" to the Marriage Feast. 
Meanwhile let us take heed how we cast reflection 
upon her fair repute. 

And, finally; let us never be ashamed of Christ. 
"Nay, when I blush, be this my shame, that I no 
more revere his name." He is " the first-born among 
many brethren" here; and he will acknowledge the 
humblest of his true followers in the presence of the 
universe assembled at the Great Day. 

It is recorded of Joseph that when his father and 
brethren came from Beer-sheba, he as Viceroy 
received them with most distinguished honors. He 
was not ashamed of the old farmer with his rustic 
sons who came in homespun with wagons to the 



"WAS CHRIST A CHRISTIAN ? " 229 

royal city. Nay, he went out to meet them, he 
brought them to Court, he introduced them to the 
king, saying, " These are my brethren." So will 
our Elder Brother receive us when we go over to the 
Better Country. Here is his promise: "Whosoever 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also 
before my Father which is in heaven." 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD 

44 O Lord, thou art exalted as head above all."— I. Chron. 29, n. 

The work of King David was done. The kingdom 
was about to be handed over to Solomon. A solemn 
assembly had been called at which David commended 
his son to the consideration of the people and dwelt 
with pathetic emphasis on the unfulfilled dream of 
his life, the building of "the house magnificat." The 
address opened with an invocation of singular beauty: 
* i Blessed be thou. Lord God of Israel our father, for ever 
and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, 
and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty : for all 
that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is 
the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. " 

The sin of our times is irreverence. We take great 
liberties with God. In prosperity we forget him, in 
adversity we murmur against him. In our contro- 
versies we bandy his august Name to and fro as in a 
game of shuttlecock. We pare the edges of his holy 
Law. We stand at the doorway of his oracles, cry- 
ing, "Yea, hath God spoken ?" Irreverence is a most 
heinous sin. It was called nefas by the Romans, and 
was regarded as a capital offense. Not murder itself 
had so short a shrift. The wind blows in a different 
quarter now. Is it not time to call a halt and to ask 
in all seriousness whether God has any rights which 

230 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 23 1 

earthworms and ephemera are bound to respect ? It 
is important to know God's place in the universe and 
our place with reference to him. 

I. He is, at the outset, the First Cause of All. One 
phase of the current sin of irreverence is Materialism. 
Not a few so-called scientists are sedulously engaged 
in trying to eliminate God from the problem of 
nature. Because they cannot find him with tele- 
scopes and microscopes, they conclude that his being 
is a myth ; as if, indeed, God were to be discovered 
floating about like a star or hiding somewhere like a 
microbe. In fact, he is not far from every one of us. 
He stands at the scientist's elbow with power enough 
in a breath of his nostrils to sweep an army of 
cavilers into nonentity; but he cannot be seen with 
fleshly eyes nor touched with finger tips. The sixth 
sense must be brought into requisition; as it is writ- 
ten, u By faith we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God, so that things which are 
seen were not made of things which do appear. " 
When Napoleon, to whom Laplace had submitted 
his system of philosophy, inquired, " Where does 
God come in? " the answer was, " We have no longer 
any need of God." But there are two points at 
which a godless scientist is at his wits' end. 

The first is Creation. You say, " I do not believe 
in creation; I am an evolutionist. " You are prob- 
ably aware that evolution is as yet a mere hypothesis 
and that, except by novices, nothing more is claimed 
for it. Nor is it a working hypothesis as yet. At 
frequent intervals it utterly breaks down. It is like 
a railway along the summits of the Andes, which 
may look well enough on paper but has too many 



2J2 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 

chasms for practical use. You have taken a hypothesis 
as your first premise and set out to substantiate it. 
You smile at bridgeless gulfs and chasms; " missing 
links " are of slight consequence. You are in search 
of origins. Matter is a fact; the question is, Whence 
came it ? Follow it back to chaos, past chaos to the 
nebula, and beyond the nebula to the primordial 
germ : what then ? The difficulty still remains. It is 
as hard to account for an atom as for a universe. 
You are facing an impenetrable wall of darkness ; but 
for the theist a door opens just there and, amidst a 
burst of glory, he finds himself in the presence of the 
Infinite. Here is God's workshop; and behold, he is 
spreading out the heavens, hanging dawns and sun- 
sets like tapestries, framing worlds and spinning 
them into their orbits. He stretcheth out the north 
over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon 
nothing; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, 
and the chambers of the south; he measureth the 
waters in the hollow of his hand; he comprehendeth 
the dust in a measure and weigheth the mountains 
in scales. Here, then, is the solution of the prob- 
lem. "In the beginning. God." 

The second insurmountable difficulty of the god- 
less scientist is to account for the maintenance of the 
present order. Law and energy are inadequate. Law 
without a lawgiver, order without an administrator, 
effects without causes, an engine without an engineer; 
these are not merely illogical, they are unthinkable. 
Furthermore, they yield no satisfaction to a seeking 
soul. A few days ago I watched a broken spar mak- 
ing a vain struggle to reach the shore through the 
boiling surf, beaten and buffeted to and fro, helpless, 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 233 

hopeless, a mere victim of the elements. So is a 
godless man in the grip of insensate laws: he is help- 
less amid the hiss and roar of machinery. There is 
unspeakable relief in the thought of Providence: " In 
him we live and move and have our being." A warm 
hand touches ours; and we are led forth to Olivet to 
hear him say: "Behold the fowls of the air; they 
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; 
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 
much better than they? And consider the lilies of the 
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they 
spin : yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all 
his glory was not arrayed like one of these." In this 
philosophy we rest. God is over us and under us 
and round about us. 

The Lord our God is full of might, 

The winds obey His will ; 
He speaks, — and in his heavenly height 

The rolling sun stands still. 

Rebel, ye waves, and o'er the land 

With threatening aspect roar ; 
The Lord uplifts his awful hand, 

And chains you to the shore. 

Howl, winds of night ; your force combine ; 

Without his high behest, 
Ye shall not, in the mountain pine, 

Disturb the sparrow's nest. 

His voice sublime is heard afar, 

In distant peals it dies ; 
He yokes the whirlwind to his car, 

And sweeps the howling skies. 

Ye nations, bend — in reverence bend ; 

Ye monarchs, wait his nod, 
And bid the choral song ascend 

To celebrate your God. 



234 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 

II. God is also the Power Behind the Throne. Here 
we touch another phase of irreverence, to wit, An- 
archy. Defiance of human forms of government is 
closely allied with Atheism, since the "powers that 
be are ordained of God." It is true that God does 
not approve of tyranny and oppression; but "order is 
heaven's first law." Wherefore we are forbidden to 
speak evil of dignities. 

The political fabric which God constructed for his 
chosen people was ideal. It was known as the The- 
ocracy, or " Government of God." Its constitution 
was the Moral Law. Its earthly Executive was the 
High Priest, on whose breastplate was inscribed, 
"Holiness to the Lord." Its center was the Ark of 
the Covenant, over which was the mysterious Sheki- 
nah, the pillar of cloud in which God manifested his 
presence and from which he made known his holy will. 

As time passed, however, the people clamored for 
a monarchy. They wanted a visible king who should 
wear a glittering crown and wield a scepter and ride 
in a chariot before them. Wherefore God gave them 
Saul the son of Kish to rule over them. But in fact, 
neither Saul nor any of his successors was king of 
Israel. They were but viceroys, appointed to rule 
under God. There is no jus divinum but this. God 
is the king-maker; his is ever the power behind the 
throne. "By me," he says, "kings rule." This is 
recognized in all Christian monarchies. Victoria is 
"Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India by 
the grace of God." 

But what shall we say of a Republic ? Our fathers 
assembled in Independence Hall to formulate a gov- 
ernment "of the people, by the people and for the 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 235 

people." Nevertheless a republic does not derive its 
authority from the consent of the people except as the 
maxim holds true, Vox populi, vox Dei. While the 
members of the Continental Congress were engaged 
in discussing the fundamental principles of civil and 
ecclesiastical freedom with such minor considerations 
as taxes and revenues, a suggestion of supreme im- 
portance was made by Benjamin Franklin; to wit, 
" As no government can endure and prosper without 
the blessing of heaven, I move that prayer be now 
offered to Almighty God." This was a just recogni- 
tion of the ultimate authority; For " except the Lord 
build the house, they labor in vain who build it; ex- 
cept the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh 
but in vain." 

In the present juncture in our National affairs it is 
wise to remember what Thomas Carlyle said, " No 
government can stand on the mechanical utilities." 
We are just now searching for new outlets of com- 
merce, making excursions of enterprise into Asiatic 
waters, dreaming dreams of national expansion. Who 
can estimate the issues ? We are crossing the line of 
seclusion into fellowship with the world-powers. As 
a Christian nation we can have no interest in " na- 
tional expansion " except so far as it may mean the 
expansion of the kingdom of Christ. Any other view 
is sordid and provincial. A great career is before us, 
but that is not the point. This is what counts : We 
are to have a splendid opportunity of serving God. 
The responsibility of the hour cannot righteously be 
avoided. "The White Man's Burden " is laid upon 
us. The poet's adjuration sounds like an echo of the 
Great Commission of our Lord : 



2 $6 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 

" Take up the White Man's burden — 

Send forth the best ye breed — 
Go, bind your sons to exile 

To serve your captives' need ; 
To wait, in heavy harness, 

On fluttered folk and wild — 
Your new-caught sullen peoples, 

Half devil and half child. 

Take up the White Man's burden— 

Ye dare not stoop to less — 
Nor call too loud on Freedom 

To cloke your weariness. 
By all ye will or whisper, 

By all ye leave or do, 
The silent sullen peoples 

Shall weigh your God and you." 

It was four centuries ago that Spain began her 
foreign invasions with the power of the inquisition 
behind her. Two centuries later England set forth 
to the conquest of the seas. Her methods were 
mediaeval; her broadest purpose was commercial 
enterprise. We are not so hampered and handi- 
capped in our new departure. This Republic has 
the benefit of a hundred glorious years of civil and 
ecclesiastical freedom. We are a Christian nation, 
by profession and universal consent; as such we 
assume the white man's burden. If we bear it wisely 
and prayerfully, who knows how magnificently we 
may contribute to the triumphs of civilization and pre- 
pare the way for the coming of Christ. To this end let 
us ever remember that God worketh in us to will and 
to do of his own good pleasure. It is true that his 
name is not in our Constitution; but that is a matter 
of little moment if his authority be felt and manifest 
in the hearts and lives of rulers and people. There- 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 237 

fore our constant prayer should be: "Protect us by 
thy might, great God, our King! " 

III. God is furthermore the Alpha of Truth. There 
are only two systems of theology: Arminianism and 
Calvinism ; and these differ not as to the landscape of 
truth but merely as to the viewpoint. An Arminian 
makes man the center; that is, the sovereignty of 
the human will. A Calvinist begins at the sover- 
eignty of God. I am a Calvinist by logical necessity ; 
it seems impossible to me that the solar system should 
revolve around the moon. It cannot be said that 
God's love is the center, nor his justice; for these 
are mere attributes. God himself is the effulgent 
focus from which all great verities radiate. His 
sovereignty is not an attribute but the condition of 
his ineffable being. Love and justice are unavailing 
except as He who loves and judges, sits supreme upon 
his throne. 

In a system thus buttressed by Omnipotence, we 
have a sufficient basis of Salvation. If our hope of a 
blessed hereafter rested on ourselves alone, we might 
well fear and tremble. What is more uncomfortable 
than for a little child to run after its mother, clinging to 
her skirts and crying to be cared for? But a child in its 
mother's arms — ah, there are safety and happiness. 
The man who hopes to be saved by clinging to God, 
may well speak of the danger of " falling from grace." 
But if the Almighty shall somehow lay hold upon 
him, then danger ceases. "No man," said Jesus, 
" shall pluck you out of my hand. — The gates of hell 
shall not prevail against you." Wherefore "work 
out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for 
it is God that worketh in you." 



238 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 

In this we have, also, a reliable staff of life. In the 
philosophy of self-culture there are three cabalistic 
words: Sin, Duty, Character; and each of these must 
be defined with reference to God. What is sin? 
Lese majesty; that is, Enmity against God. Thus 
David cried in his penitence, "Against thee, thee 
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight! " 
—What is duty? It is debt. To whom? To God. 
All questions of conscience are reduced to this ulti- 
mate form, Will it please God? — And what is charac- 
ter? Godliness; that is, God-likeness. On the 
negative side it is avoidance of sin, on the positive 
the right discharge of duty; and both of these are in 
the nature of a return to God. 

Here, also, is the working postulate of the kingdom. 
The divine sovereignty furnishes a satisfactory fran- 
chise for Missions at home and abroad. " All power 
is given unto me," said Jesus, " wherefore go ye into 
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. " 
What is this gospel but the proclamation of the grace 
of one who is not only willing but infinitely able to 
save? " How beautiful upon the mountains are the 
feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publish- 
eth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that 
publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God 
reignetkJ" 

If these things are true, it behooves us to make 
much of God in our thinking and living. Let us 
walk softly before him. Let us take heed and beware 
of malapertness in the discussion of great verities ; for 
"fools rush in where angels fear to tread." The man 
who imagines himself competent to pluck the heart 
out of divine mysteries will do well to read the thirty- 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 239 

eighth chapter of the Book of Job. It should never 
be forgotten that "the Lord our God is a jealous 
God." 

In all our dealings with the high and holy One 
who inhabiteth eternity — and dealings we must have 
with him since we were created in his likeness — let 
us bow reverently as did Moses at the burning bush. 
This is the admonition: " Draw not nigh hither; put 
off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
thou standest is holy ground." Our burning bush is 
at Calvary, where Deity burned (yet was not con- 
sumed) for us. Here God reveals himself; his bound- 
less love, his infinite justice, his sovereign grace. 
Come nigh, O sinner, and touch his wounded feet; 
but no nearer ! The revelation of Godhood here 
rolls upon us like a floodtide. Bow low, speak softly; 
this is the Holy of Holies. "My Lord and my 
God!" 

Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, 
the only wise God and our Saviour, be honor and 
glory forever and ever. Amen. 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN 

"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of 
mint, anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law." 
—Matthew 23, 23. 

In the Life of Dr. Johnson there is an interesting 
colloquy between Boswell and his great master, as 
follows: 

Boswell. " Pray, sir, did you ever play on any musical in- 
strument?" 

Johnson. "No, sir; had I learned to fiddle, I should have 
done nothing else. I once bought me a flageolet, but I never 
made out a tune." 

Boswell. *'A flageolet, sir? So small an instrument. I 
should have liked to hear you play on the violoncello; that 
should have been your instrument." 

Johnson. " Sir, I might as well have played on the violon- 
cello as another ; but I should have done nothing else. No, sir; 
a man would never undertake great things could he be content 
with small. I once tried knotting — Dempster's sister undertook 
to teach me — but I could not learn it." 

There is the homely setting forth of a great truth ; 
to wit, An undue attention to small matters disquali- 
fies us for a just consideration of more important 
things. It was just here that the Scribes and Phari- 
sees erred. They lived in a time of spiritual declen- 
sion: and, as religious leaders, they should have 
distinguished themselves by holy zeal. But they 
were not equal to their opportunity. The time called 

240 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 241 

for men of broad views, high purposes, noble aspira- 
tions; but these were " fiddlers," as Johnson would 
have said. They were gownsmen, doctrinaires; atten- 
tive to minutest details and particulars. They were 
like the Preraphaelites, who cannot paint a poppy 
field but only a field of poppies. They were like 
that countryman who " could not see London for its 
houses." They were little men, living in a little 
world, thinking along narrow grooves, strenuously 
attentive to infinitesimals. A glance at these men 
suggests the importance of Taking Large Views of 
Things. 

The initial mistake made by the Scribes and Phari- 
sees was in their Conception of God. Surely as Doctors 
of Divinity they should have known him. They were 
Professors of Theology, which is defined to be the 
" Science of God ; " but their views were most super- 
ficial. God was to them the supreme Ruler of a little 
strip of territory on the eastern border of the Medi- 
terranean Sea; his province was scarcely greater than 
that of a Roman procurator. He had set the Jews 
apart as his chosen people and, unmindful of the rest 
of humankind, was minutely observant and exacting 
in his attitude toward them. The tithe of garden 
herbs was a proper oblation for such an One. 

It is of the utmost importance that we should ob- 
tain an adequate view of God. We are measured, 
indeed, by our conception of him. The man who is 
entrusted with a single talent would never have 
wasted his opportunity as he did, but for his grievous 
error as to his master's character. He said, " Lord, 
I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where 
thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast 



242 MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 

not strewed : and I was afraid, and went and hid thy 
talent in the earth." 

Our God is a great God. His greatness is unsearch- 
able. He is great in his being; for this is his name: 
I AM THAT I AM. — He is great in his attributes. 
How easy to say "Omnipotence," "Omniscience," 
"Omnipresence"; but who shall comprehend these 
heights and depths ? It is to measure the ocean in a 
gourd. — He is great, moreover, in his demands upon 
us who were made in his likeness. His word is, "My 
son, give me thy heart"; and, behold, we offer him 
mint, anise and cummin! 

The Scribes and Pharisees had also but a narrow 
view of the great truths which radiate from God. To 
them were entrusted the Oracles; and it was their 
special function as Biblical Experts, to know and 
explain great doctrines and precepts. But their 
scholarship was addressed to the jot and tittle. They 
made much of the letter which killeth and overlooked 
the spirit which giveth life. They were hair-splitters, 
wire-drawers, monstrous triflers. They did not enter 
into the great chambers of truth but had much to say 
of superficial considerations. So beggars stand hun- 
gry at the windows of the bake-shop. So, in our 
boyhood, we walked around the tents of the men- 
agerie, hearing the roar and trumpeting of mighty 
beasts, the music of orchestras, and applause and 
laughter of the audience; in which we, alas, had 
neither part nor lot. These exegetes should have 
remembered the saying that is written: "The en- 
trance of thy word giveth light." 

The successors of these men are among us. We 
too have Biblical experts whose attention is given to 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 243 

mint, anise and cummin to the neglect of the weight- 
ier matters of the law. For forty years we have 
been listening to the arguments of the Higher Critics. 
The great truths that fill the temple with their glory 
have been held in abeyance while theologians have 
gravely discussed the question of flaws in the marble. 
And with what result? "The mountain has brought 
forth a mouse. " Cardinal Wiseman said of the 
accumulated product of this controversy: "In all this 
mass, although every attainable source has been 
exhausted; although the fathers of every age have 
been gleaned for their readings ; although the versions 
of every nation, Arabic, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and 
Ethiopian, have been ransacked for their renderings; 
although manuscripts of every age, from the sixteenth 
century upwards to the third, and of every country, 
have been again and again visited by industrious 
swarms to rifle them of their treasures; although, 
having exhausted the stores of the West, critics have 
traveled like naturalists into distant lands to discover 
new specimens, have visited, like Scholz or Sebastian, 
the recesses of Mount Athos or the unexplored 
libraries of the Egyptian and Syrian deserts, yet 
has nothing been discovered, no, not one single 
various reading, which can throw doubt upon any 
passage before considered certain or decisive in favor 
of any important doctrine. ,, A more recent opinion 
of the results of this controversy has been expressed 
by Dr. Green of Princeton, who affirms that of the 
propositions of the Higher Critics ninety per cent, 
have been disproven, five per cent, more are in the 
process of demolition, while the remainder may be 
regarded as a more or less valuable addition to the 



244 MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 

sum total of our knowledge. If this be so, there is 
some reason to inquire whether the game has been 
worth the candle. 

Is it not time for laymen to lend a hand ? Why 
should it be so generally assumed that specialists are 
the best judges of comprehensive doctrines, when the 
very opposite is true? Is it not apparent that minute 
scrutiny and explanation of infinitesimals may so con- 
tract the vision as to interfere with a just apprehen- 
sion of larger things ? Men who fiddle well, as 
Doctor Johnson intimated, are not likely to be accom- 
plished in such matters as jurisprudence or interna- 
tional diplomacy. The Bible is a great book ; it deals 
with great verities, such as sin, salvation, judgment 
and the endless life. These cannot be subjected to 
the processes of the microscope. The larger scholar- 
ship alone can grasp them. 

At one time Greece was given over to the Sophists, 
whose entire outfit was an elaborate collection of 
juggling catches. They applied their methods to all 
great questions, and would with perfect equanimity 
maintain the truth of either side. The youth of Athens 
flocked to their schools, and were captivated by their 
plausible words. Then came Socrates, the reformer, 
who addressed himself in particular to these learned 
triflers. He maintained the importance of truth. He 
protested that there was a large and generous way of 
determining " between the worse and better reason." 
Great thinker that he was, sweeping the horizon with 
his far-reaching eyes, he could not endure quibbles 
and subtleties. And it was the hair-splitting sophists 
who put the cup of hemlock to his lips. 

The larger way of looking at truth is not for spe- 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 245 

cialists, but for the average man. The expert has his 
place, indeed, but not just here. He goes into the 
Yosemite with a geologist's hammer and, busied about 
"specimens," he cannot be expected to behold clearly 
the magnificence of nature. I stood once on the 
upper deck of a steamer, approaching the chalk cliffs 
of France, which were reddened by the glory of a 
magnificent sunset, and was lost in reverent wonder 
and admiration; a friend at my elbow, much given 
to scientific research, broke the silence with the ob- 
servation that these cliffs had been formed by minute^ 
rhizopods. Rhizopods, forsooth! So does the small 
scholarship of our time break in upon the vision of 
stupendous truths. So did the Scribes and Pharisees 
tempt Christ with questions as to "the sevenfold 
widow " and the greatest commandment, while he was 
discoursing on the illimitable glories of the endless 
life. Not thus let us approach the Oracles. The 
things that make for life and character and usefulness 
are here. "Search the Scriptures," said our Master, 
"for in them ye think ye have eternal life and these 
are they which testify of me." 

Another mistake was made by the Scribes and 
Pharisees in their Treatment of Ethics. As lawyers, 
that is, expositors of the Mosaic Code, it was their 
particular business to know and teach rules of con- 
duct. In this they were masters of casuistry. They 
were scrupulous in particulars to the last degree. 
They subdivided the precepts of the Law; weighed 
and measured and compared them. The greatest, said 
some, was the Law of the Phylactery ; the least was the 
Law of the Bird's Nest. They sifted and threshed, 
scrutinized and analyzed, quibbled and made fine dis- 



246 MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 

tinctions. They dwelt much on the importance of ablu- 
tions. The arms ' ' must be washed a pigmy's length, " 
they said ; that is, from knuckles to elbow, with the 
water dropping from the finger tips. Meanwhile, God 
was saying to them, " Your hands are full of blood; 
wash you, make you clean ; cease to do evil, learn to 
do well." 

As to the Sabbath, they had many toldoth or minute 
requirements. There were rules as to treading on 
the grass, as to kindling a fire, as to the number of 
steps that might lawfully be taken on the Holy Day. 
How like the sound of a clarion is the larger word of 
the Master, "The Sabbath was made for man!" 
Here is the criterion by which to settle all questions 
of Sabbath rest ; this is a day for the soul, a day to 
bring us into closer sympathy with the divine purpose 
concerning us. Here is no place for trifling and 
wire-drawing. " The seventh day is the Sabbath of 
the Lord thy God!" 

All similar questions of conduct were treated by 
these doctrinaires in the same way. It was a mere 
tithing of garden herbs. The Law is the expression 
of the divine mind. A true obedience is that which 
brings us into closer fellowship with God. We 
wrong ourselves by quibbling here. We offend God 
by our petty modes of casuistry. The Scribes and 
Pharisees were quite willing to bargain with Judas 
for thirty pieces of silver, but they drew the line at 
putting the thirty pieces into the temple treasury. 
Thus they were ever straining out the gnat and swal- 
lowing the camel. Not long ago a young man came 
to me with a sum of money, requesting that I would 
use it for the relief of the poor. A little later he 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 247 

came again with a like request: "I am a Christian 
man" he said; "and would like to be doing some- 
thing for charity." Isaid, "Do you mind my ask- 
ing how you made this money?" He replied, "Not 
at all: I play the races." "You play the races ! " I 
exclaimed, "and profess to be a Christian man! 
How can you follow Christ without praying over 
your business?" He answered, "But I do pray 
about my business; I never attend a race, without 
previously getting down on my knees and taking 
counsel as to which horse will win." He proceeded 
to justify himself in this manner: " There is a cer- 
tain amount of money up on these races and some- 
body must win it. The chances are that it will pass 
into the hands of wicked men. Why should I not 
get possession of that money, since I have told the 
Lord that I would give him a tithe of it ? " Here is 
an extreme illustration of casuistry, such as enters, 
in less or greater measure, into our common consider- 
ations of right and wrong. The way to avoid it is to 
take the larger view. Virtue, character, usefulness; 
these are immense considerations. Let these be the 
measure of our life. " Ye are the salt of the earth; 
but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it 
be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing but to 
be cast out and trodden under foot of men. — Ye are 
the light of the world; let your light so shine before 
men that they may see your good works and glorify 
your Father which is in heaven." Here is the 
criterion: nothing is right that belittles character; 
nothing is wrong that glorifies God. 

The Scribes and Pharisees were astray also in their 
Views of Worship. They were high churchmen. They 



^48 MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 

were punctilious to the last degree as to rites and 
ceremonies. ' They made much of bowings and genu- 
flections, as if these could satisfy God. It was against 
such trivial observances that our Lord's words were 
directed: " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
mask-wearers ! ye are like whited sepulchres, fair 
without but within full of dead men's bones and all 
uncleanness. " At this point we touch upon one of the 
most portentous evils of our time, to wit, Ritualism. 
What is that ? Lip service ; the outward form of de- 
votion with no corresponding regard for piety. It is 
drawing near to God with our lips while our hearts 
are far from him. 

Down the road from his battle with Amalek came 
king Saul, who had been commanded to kill all that 
he captured, and, behold, he is driving before him 
the best of the sheep and oxen and fatlings. The 
prophet met him, saying, " What meaneth this 
bleating of sheep in mine ears, and this lowing of 
oxen ?" And Saul said, " I have spared them to sac- 
rifice unto the Lord thy God." Saul was a ritualist. 
The prophet rebuked him, saying, "To obey is better 
than sacrifice; and to hearken, than the fat of rams. 
Because thou hast disobeyed the word of the Lord 
he hath rejected thee. " 

A bandit of the Alps pursues his bloody calling 
the year round with no scruple ; but on Good Friday 
he appears in the village, lays a tithe of his plunder 
before the bambino, makes confession, receives abso- 
lution; and straightway hies him back to his pursuits 
among the fastnesses of the hills. The bandit is a 
ritualist. But how, think you, does such offering of 
mint, anise and cummin appear to a just God? 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 249 

In the temple of ancient Egypt was kept the sacred 
crocodile; attended by princes, fed with the rarest 
delicacies, adorned with chains of gold. When the 
stupid thing died, the whole city put on trappings of 
woe, and drained its revenues for sumptuous obse- 
quies. That was ritualism: pagan, to be sure, but 
quite as reasonable as much that we are familiar with 
in these last days. 

In the Anglican Establishment a body of "high 
churchmen " insist on swinging their censers and up- 
lifting the mass. There is an outcry: "You are vio- 
lating the national constitution; you are breaking 
your ordination vows; you are threatening the dis* 
ruption of the Church; you are hurrying us on 
toward disestablishment! " But what of that? On 
with the mummery! What are laws and oaths and 
vows ? But the incense that rises from such service 
surely giveth a stinking savor in the nostrils of God. 

What is the mind of the Master ? He met the 
woman at the well of Sychar, and spoke to her of the 
great questions of the endless life. At length he 
touched upon her personal sin; and, as the custom 
is, thinking to divert the conversation into less pain- 
ful channels, she said, " Let us discuss a question of 
theology. Our fathers worshiped God in Gerizim, 
but ye on Mount Zion; now which is right ?" Mark 
his answer: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh 
when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jeru- 
salem worship the Father; for God is a Spirit; and 
they that worship him, must worship him in spirit 
and in truth." 

But the crowning error of the Scribes and Pharisees 
was in their Thought of Salvation. They were looking 



250 MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 

for a Messiah. His coming was " the Hope of Israel." 
All the prophets from Moses onward had spoken of 
him. But he was expected to come wearing a golden 
crown and with a jeweled scepter. Lo, here he stands 
before them: a man in homespun! He is as a root 
out of a dry ground ; he hath no form nor comeliness ; 
and there is no beauty that they should desire him. 
And they ask, "Is not this the son of Joseph the car- 
penter ?" Had Jesus been willing to pose before 
them as a good man and nothing more, there would 
have been no outcry against him. But he insisted on 
his Messiahship ; he claimed to be equal with God. 

Nicodemus greeted him thus: "Rabbi, we know 
thou art a teacher come from God. " This, however, 
did not satisfy Jesus; his reply was instantaneous: 
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be 
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

A young ruler, on one occasion, threw himself 
before Jesus, saying, " Good Rabbi, What must I do 
to inherit eternal life ? " Good Rabbi ! More garden 
herbs. He would have none of it. "Why callest 
thou me good? there is none good but one, that is 
God." In other words, his claim was Godhood or 
nothing. Mint, anise and cummin would not con- 
tent him. 

The world on all sides is willing to admit that 
Jesus was a good man; but to say that and no more 
is to affront his majesty. It is to proclaim him an 
impostor, in that it rejects his larger claims. No 
man can go half way with Jesus. ** If any will come 
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and 
follow me! " 

Our constant temptation is to minimize the de- 



MINT, ANISE AND CUMMIN. 25 1 

mands of Christ. Let it be remembered that he will 
accept no terms but unconditional surrender. He is 
nothing to us unless he be our Lord, our Life, our 
Sacrifice, our Saviour and our All. He will not under- 
take our salvation except as God's equal. This quali- 
fied acceptance of Jesus was in the mind of the apos- 
tle when he cried, "O foolish Galatians, who hath 
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, 
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently 
set forth, crucified among you ?" 

We conclude, then, with a prayer that God would 
enlarge our scope of vision, that he would enable us 
to treat great verities in a large way. The word am- 
plius, with which Michael Angelo was wont to reprove 
his art pupils when their work was of too contracted 
sort, is the word for us. Amplius ! Larger, broader, 
deeper, higher! What foolish men are we to fret our 
souls about the light of glowworms when the sun 
shines over us! Lift up your eyes and see. Im- 
mortality, Duty, Character, Heaven, Glory ; these are 
splendid truths. They emanate from God. And the 
boast of manhood is, as Keppler says, that we can 
" think God's thoughts after him." He is a great 
God ; his greatness is unsearchable. We are made in 
his likeness and after his image. He speaks, "My 
son, give me thy heart!" Let us look toward his 
throne with high purpose and noble aspiration. No 
mint, anise and cummin for our God. The best is 
none too good for him. For, ' ' except your righteous- 
ness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of 
God." 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON 

" And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he 
talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures ? " — 
Luke 24, 32. 

The road from Jerusalem to Emmaus was through 
a region of wild and rugged beauty; but these trav- 
elers had no eyes for it. "The noontide sun is 
dark and music discord, when the heart is low." A 
great sorrow had befallen them : their dearest Friend 
had been put to a shameful death. " O for the touch 
of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is 
still! " They were on their way to Galilee: discour- 
aged and perhaps, as Matthew Henry says, "medi- 
tating a retreat." They had followed Jesus in full 
confidence of his Messiahship only to see him tamely 
surrender to his foes. They could not understand 
how, claiming omnipotence, he should have bowed 
himself to the mockery and scourging in the Judg- 
ment Hall; or how he should have submitted to the 
agonies of the cross when, with divine resources at 
his command, he might have called upon legions of 
angels to deliver him. Indeed, they were sorely 
disappointed in him; they had looked to him as 
David's Son for the restoration of the glory of Israel, 
and he had gone as a lamb to the slaughter and as a 
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not 

252 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 253 

his mouth. Such were the sorrowful thoughts that 
pressed upon their hearts. So absorbed were they 
that they did not hear the footstep of a lone traveler 
who approached from behind and presently overtook 
them. It was Jesus himself; but their eyes were 
holden that they knew him not. 

"What manner of communications are these," he 
asked, "that ye have one with another ?" 

They stood still, looking sad; and Cleopas an- 
swered, "Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and 
not know the things which have come to pass in 
these days ? " 

He said unto them, "What things?" 

They replied, "The things concerning Jesus of 
Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and 
word." Then they related the manner of his cruel 
death; betraying their sore disappointment in the 
words, "We hoped that it was he that should redeem 
Israel." They made mention, also, of strange rumors 
that had come to their ears; how certain women had 
seen a vision of angels who declared that Jesus was 
alive; and how others had gone to the sepulchre and 
found it empty; but "seeing is believing," they 
said, "and as yet no one hath seen him." 

At this the Stranger said, "O fools, and slow of 
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and 
to enter into his glory?" And beginning at Moses 
and the prophets he expounded unto them the Scrip- 
tures concerning himself. This was the first Easter 
sermon, and it is worthy of our attention for many 
reasons. 

I. It was addressed to the Universal Church. For 



254 THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 

what is the church ? To-day in St. Peter's at Rome 
the Resurrection is being celebrated with much 
pomp and circumstance. The Pope enters, arrayed 
in magnificent canonicals, followed by an imposing 
retinue of Cardinals. Vested choirs sing antiphonal 
hosannas and hallelujahs. The imposing edifice is 
filled with clouds of incense. Is this the Church ? 
Perhaps so. But there was a time when, beneath 
that same Imperial City, a little company of fugitives 
from sword and fagot met in the Catacombs to 
worship Christ. On the stone shelves hewn out on 
either side, lay the mangled bodies of their martyred 
dead. The company with muffled voices made their 
prayers and sang praises, while the night dews 
dropped about them and the roll of chariot wheels 
was heard above. A feeble folk they were, like the 
conies, and compassed about with fears and sorrows: 
but they loved Christ, worshiped in sincerity and were 
prepared, if need be, to seal their covenant with their 
blood. Was this the Church ? I think so. " Where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them " : this is the Master's defini- 
tion. It was seen in miniature in this little company on 
the way to Emmaus. The Romanists say, ' ' Where the 
church is, there is Christ: " but precisely the reverse 
is true; where Christ is, there is the church. Had 
you been going along the road that day and passed 
this little group of wayfarers in homespun, you 
would scarcely have turned a second look upon them. 
Yet there was a vivid suggestion of the great energy 
which through the centuries has been working for 
civilization as leaven in the three measures of meal. 
This is the living organism through which God's 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 255 

Spirit is working for the deliverance of our race: the 
mighty Archimedean leverage by which he is lifting 
our sin-stricken world into the eternal light and 
glory. And the discourse which Jesus preached to 
those dusty travelers, though recorded in merest 
outline, must be of absorbing interest to the Church 
of all ages. 

II. Observe that Christ here spake of "the things con- 
cerning himself. " In any other preacher this would be 
preposterous. By all considerations of just modesty 
we are required to hide ourselves behind the truth. 
It was needful, however, that Christ should speak of 
himself in this manner, since he himself is the living 
centre of his Gospel. Christianity stands alone as 
distinctly the religion of a Person. Christianity is 
Christ. He is more than its central fact; he is first, 
last, midst and all in all. It is for this reason that 
all attempts to found a living system on Christian 
doctrine or on Christian ethics apart from Christ 
himself, have been lamentable failures. Neo-Plato- 
nism, Arianism, Unitarianism, the Hindu Somajes, 
u Ethical Culture," and Altruistic Socialism are illus- 
trations in point. It is impossible to omit Christ and 
save his teaching; for He himself is the life which ani- 
mates his doctrine. 

In this we perceive the necessity of his resurrection. 
Had the record ended with the cross, the system of 
doctrine and ethics which he had established, must 
have shared his fate. Thus when Oliver Cromwell 
died one stormy night in September, 1658, there 
was consternation among the friends of civil and 
religious freedom. His body had been scarcely laid 
away in Westminster, when Charles Stuart and his 



256 THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 

cavaliers came marching back to London to assert the 
jus divinum; and the Commonwealth — because it was 
so closely identified with the Great Commoner — was 
dissipated like an ice palace in the sun. But sup- 
pose that, as the royal cortege passed along the streets 
the Lord Protector himself had reappeared at Temple 
Bar, crying, " God with us!" and rallying his 
Roundheads about him. How would these cavaliers 
have fled like leaves before an autumn blast! This is 
precisely what Jesus did when he returned from the 
sepulchre and, meeting his disciples, marked out for 
them the campaign of the future propaganda, saying, 
"All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth; 
go ye, therefore, and evangelize; and, lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world ! " 

It is obvious, from these considerations, that our 
preaching must ever exalt Christ as Center and Head 
of all. Our constant temptation is to turn aside to 
trivial themes. The Jews require a sign and the 
Greeks seek after wisdom ; but we must needs preach 
Christ and him crucified; to the Jews a stumbling- 
block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them 
which are saved the very wisdom and power of God. 
It behooves us who are appointed to declare the un- 
searchable riches of the gospel, to accept the homiletic 
rules which our Master has laid down. And would 
that our people might never ask for truth that lies 
outside that vast circle of light which radiates from 
Christ! Our secret of success is in the true word 
that he uttered, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me," 

III. Let it be noted furthermore that the Scriptures fur- 
nished the sum and substance of this Easter sermon. i 'And 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 257 

beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded to them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
cerning himself. " It is not to be presumed that he 
carried with him the bulky scroll of Revelation ; but, 
better than that, he had it stored in memory and at 
his fingers' ends. He had learned the Scriptures in 
the Rabbinical schools and memorized them at his 
mother's knee. He loved them, he believed in them, 
he understood them, he made them the man of his 
counsel, he set them forth as an infallible rule of faith 
and practice. So far as the record indicates he never 
uttered a word that could prejudice the minds of his 
hearers against their absolute truth and inerrancy. 
On this occasion he began at the beginning and pro- 
ceeded along the luminous path of prophecy con- 
cerning himself as the Saviour of the world. This 
was what his doubting and bewildered hearers needed ; 
for, as Trench says, " man's word, woman's word 
and angel's word they had heard and heeded"; but 
they had yet to hear and heed the inerrant word of 
God. 

It is probable that Jesus began his exposition with 
the protevangel, u The seed of the woman shall bruise 
the serpent's head " ; which, uttered at the gate of 
Paradise, set forth in dim outline the mighty proposi- 
tion that God would manifest himself in flesh for the 
world's deliverance from sin. 

He called attention to many predictions of his 
singular birth; such as, "A virgin shall conceive, and 
bear a son, and shall call name Immanuel" (Isa. 
7, 14); and, " For unto us a child is born, unto us 
a son is given : and the government shall be upon his 
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, 



258 THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 

Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
The Prince of Peace " (Isa. 9, 6). 

He noted the prophecies touching his life, character 
and ministry among men; such as, "He shall grow- 
up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of 
a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and 
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we 
should desire him " (Isa. 53, 2). Also the words of 
Moses, " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a 
Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like 
unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (Deut. 18, 15). 
And the words of David; " The Lord hath sworn, and 
will not repent, Thou art a Priest forever after the 
order of Melchizedek " (Psalm no, 4). And the 
prophecies concerning his Kingship, as in Daniel's 
vision of the great image and the stone that, crushing 
the image, became a great mountain and filled the 
whole earth (Dan. 2, 31-35). 

He dwelt, no doubt, with special emphasis on the 
predictions of his vicarious death; such as, "He 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed. 
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid 
on him the iniquity of us all " (Isa. 53, 5-6) ; also, 
"After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be 
cut off, but not for himself" (Daniel 9, 26). He 
showed how the elaborate rites and symbols of the 
Old Economy were all eloquent of his death and the 
saving power of his blood. Perhaps he led his two 
companions to the doorway of the Tabernacle, say- 
ing, "What is the meaning of this lamb offered in 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 259 

sacrifice and the blood flowing over the sides of the 
brazen altar ? What is the meaning of this blood 
sprinkled on the golden candlestick ? this blood on 
the table of shew bread ? this blood on the brazen 
ewer ? this blood on the golden altar of incense ? 
this blood on the curtain of fine twined linen ? this 
blood sprinkled on the mercy seat ? " Aye, what 
was the meaning of that blood if it did not point 
always to the Lamb of God slain from the founda- 
tion of the world ; if it did not point forward to One 
whose death was to expiate the world's sin ? 

He must also have emphasized the predictions of 
his resurrection from the dead. This was the typical 
significance of Aaron's budded rod preserved in the 
Ark of the Covenant. This was also the prophetic 
interpretation of that strange episode in Jonah's life 
of which the Lord himself had said, " As Jonah was 
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so 
shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights 
in the heart of the earth." Likewise emphasis was 
put upon the divine promise, " Thou wilt not leave 
my soul in hell- neither wilt thou suffer thine holy 
one to see corruption " (Psalm 16, 10). 

But the time would fail us to indicate the multi- 
tudinous references to himself pointed out by this 
great Teacher in Holy Writ.* Let it suffice to say, 

* The distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus was about seven miles ; a 
journey of perhaps two hours. This was time enough for a considerable 
setting forth of the particulars of Messianic prophecy. Among the passages of 
Scripture to which Jesus may have referred on this occasion, are these : the 
place of his birth, Micah 5, 2 ; the visit of dignitaries, Psa. 72, 10 ; his poverty, 
Isa. 53, 2 ; his purity of character, Isa. 53, 9 ; his zeal, Psa. 69, 9 ; his ministry, 
Isa. 61, 1-2 and 9, 1-2 ; his teaching by parable, Psa. 78, 2 ; his miracles, Isa. 
35, 5-6 ; his rejection, Psa. 69, 4-8 and 118, 22 ; his public entrance into Jerusa- 
lem, Zech. 9, 9 ; his betrayal, Psa. 41, 9 and 55, 12-14 ; the thirty pieces of 
silver, Zech. u, 12-13 ; his sufferings, Psa. 22, 14-15 ; the indignities heaped 



260 THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 

in passing, that we as Christian ministers and teach- 
ers fall short of our great advantage if we also do 
not set forth Christ in the Scriptures. Let the 
quaint prayer of Nicholas Breton be ours : 

" I would I were an excellent divine 

Who had the Bible at my finger's ends ; 
That men might hear out of this mouth of mine 
How God doth make his enemies his friends." 

IV. Let us not lose sight of Christ's purpose in this 
discourse. He was proving a " needs be "; as he said 
at the outset: "O fools and slow of heart to believe 
all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ 
to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory ?" 
This was his quod erat demonstrandum. 

A fourfold obligation rested on Christ with refer- 
ence to his birth, life, death and resurrection : First; 
it was made imperative by an Eternal Decree, since 
from the beginning God had resolved thus to save 
the world from sin. Second; the Scriptures which 
were written in pursuance of that decree must needs 
be fulfilled. Third; the burden of inevitable Duty 
was laid upon the heart and conscience of Jesus as 
the ideal Man. And Fourth; Love itself commanded 
and he must obey; — as it is written, "God so loved 
the world." 

The plan thus marked out was the only one, so far 
as we can conceive, by which the desired result could 
have been accomplished. So Jesus said, " Except a 
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 

upon him, Micah 5, 1 ; Isa. 50, 6 ; Psa. 69, 21 ; Psa. 22, 7-8 ; his being nailed to 
the cross, Psa. 22, 16 ; the parting of his garments, Psa. 22, 18 ; his intercession 
for his enemies, Isa. 53, 12 ; his being pierced, Zech. 12, 10 ; his burial with the 
rich, Isa. 53, 9 ; his ascension, Psa. 68, 18 ; his exaltation, Psa. no, 1 ; his 
universal dominion, Psa. 72, 8 ; the perpetuity of his kingdom, Isa. 9, 7. 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 26 1 

alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth mucn fruit." 
And again, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life. " Must is the word. Here 
lies the world's only hope, and God stood pledged to 
its realization. In vain do the kings of the earth set 
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together 
against it; He has declared the decree, " Thou art my 
Son, this day have I begotten thee ! Ask of me and I will 
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession. " — {Psalm 2). 

V. We have the testimony of the two wayfarers as to 
the effect of this discourse upon them. They had set out 
on their journey from Jerusalem with hearts as heavy 
as if they were going through a graveyard : but as 
this Stranger conversed with them, hope revived and 
they seemed to be walking through the King's gar- 
den, amid the music of murmuring waters and sing- 
ing birds. The journey ended ere they knew it; and 
here they were at Emmaus, standing before the door. 
At their urgent entreaty their Comrade consented to 
tarry with them. " And it came to pass as he sat at 
meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and 
brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, 
and they knew him." — They knew him perhaps by 
the nail-prints in his lifted hands, or by the shining 
of his face, or by the kindliness of his familiar voice. 
They gazed in silent amazement upon him; and, lo, 
he vanished out of their sight! 

Then they said one to another, " Did not our heart 
burn within us while he talked with us by the way, 
and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Ah, 



262 THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 

beloved friends, this is what we want; the; heart that 
burns in view of solemn truth. We are so dull, so 
apathetic in the presence of great verities. We are 
like the multitude who at Calvary " stood behold- 
ing." Would we enter into a full appreciation of 
truth? Shall it take possession of us, filling our souls, 
as with the speechless joy of glad discovery? Then 
let us walk with Jesus and keep silent while he opens 
unto us the Scriptures; let us be willing, without 
cavil or questioning, to behold him in his exposition 
of his Word. Let us accept from his lips the "needs 
be" which runs like a crimson path through the blessed 
Book, leading from the councils of eternity, past the 
manger at Bethlehem and the workshop and the 
cross and the rifled sepulchre, to the open heavens 
whither he has vanished to prepare a place for those 
who love him. 

Have you, my friend, been walking alone thus 
far ? If so, give welcome to the heavenly stranger 
who would join you. Have you been absorbed in 
the cares and sorrows of life ? Hear his footstep as 
he draws near. He would fain open to you the 
Scriptures and reason with you of the things con- 
cerning himself. So shall life be made worth living; 
no longer a confusion of threads and thrums, but 
the orderly casting of a shuttle to and fro, the weav- 
ing of a white garment in which, by divine grace, 
you shall yet appear at the marriage of the King's 
Son. So shall history seem no more a mere discord 
of fortuitous events, but a calm and irresistible 
movement toward an ultimate triumph, an oratorio 
through which runs, like a dominant note, the voice 
of the Knight-errant of Bozrah, "I am he that speak- 



THE FIRST EASTER SERMON. 263 

eth in righteousness, traveling in the greatness of 
my strength, mighty to save!" So shall the future 
open up before you, as a journey through the night 
indeed, but a night filled with music and bright with 
multitudinous stars of promise. In the pathway of 
those stars, we shall still behold a graveyard. God's 
Acre in the distance is all astir; and beyond it is the 
city that hath foundations whose builder and maker 
is God. Its gates are open and within sitteth the 
King upon his throne, high and lifted up, bearing 
the scars of his passion and proclaiming, "I am he 
that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive 
forever more, and have the keys of death and hell! " 
And round about him is a great multitude which no 
man can number, ceaselessly singing, " Blessing and 
honor and glory and power be unto him that liveth 
forever and ever! Amen." 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST 

11 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a 
man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in 
himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden." 
— Galatians 6, 2-5. 

A controversy had been going on among the 
Christians of the Galatian Churches as to the neces- 
sity of obedience to the Ceremonial Law. Not a few 
were of the opinion that all candidates for admission 
to the Church should be made to pass through the 
little wicket-gate of Mosaism ; that is, to observe its 
prescriptions as to fasting, circumcision and the like. 
The apostle says, " If you want a law, let me suggest 
one that will adequately employ your energies, a 
large and comprehensive law worthy of broad-minded 
men; namely, the Great Law of Christ." 

Many Galatians who professed to be Christians, 
were bringing reproach upon the Gospel by walking 
unworthily. Some who had come out of the bondage 
of Judaism, were more devoted to the external forms 
of religion than to the weightier matters of righteous- 
ness; others who had been converted from Paganism, 
were yielding themselves to the vices of their former 
life. What should be done ? The ready answer 
would be, "Let them be excommunicated." And, 
indeed, Paul would be the last man to deny the 

264 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 265 

importance of wise discipline. But "alas for the 
rarity of Christian charity under the sun." The 
kinder methods should first be exhausted. "If a 
man be overtaken in a fault," says Paul, "ye which 
are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meek- 
ness." Just here he suggests, for the solution of the 
difficulty, the Law of Christ. It is called by Apostle 
James, "The Royal Law"; he says, "If ye fulfill 
the royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self, ye shall do well," (James 2, 8). 

This Law of Christ as related to the Law of 
Moses, was illustrated in the case of the adulterous 
woman whom the enemies of Jesus brought to him 
as he was teaching in Solomon's Porch. "Moses in the 
Law," they said, "commanded us that such should 
be stoned; but what sayest thou?" In his reply 
there was no minimizing of the offense but the saving 
wisdom of mercy: "Let him that is without sin cast 
the first stone at her." See them stealing away, self- 
convicted, beginning at the eldest! Then to the 
woman he said, "Go, and sin no more." 

The Law, thus exemplified by Christ himself, is set 
forth by his apostle in three propositions, as follows: 

The first is this : ' < Every man shall bear his own burden, " 
Here is an announcement of the vital duty of per- 
sonal independence. "Every man for himself" is a 
much abused precept; but there is a great truth in it. 
We are like soldiers on the march. It devolves on 
every one to shoulder his own musket and bear his 
own knapsack. There must be no shirking, no 
murmuring or complaining. "Every man for him- 
self" is a rule to be recognized in all the important 
affairs of life. 



266 THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 

As to pain, poverty, bereavement and the like: 
there is much to be said for the teaching of the Stoics, 
" What can't be cured must be endured." A mother 
would gladly bear the suffering of her ailing child, 
but this she cannot do. "Each for himself" is the 
order of nature. An Indian at the stake, smiling 
scornfully amid the flames which his foes have 
kindled about him, is a true philosopher. What is 
there to do, indeed, but to make the best of it ? 
Much of the misery of life comes from our assuming 
a wrong attitude toward such inevitable facts. 
Wealth that has vanished would better be forgotten. 
If a physical malady be incurable, the wisest course 
is to submit and prepare for the sequel. Here are 
burdens for us to bear without complaint. My friend, 
brace up to your burden like a man. God alone can 
help you. The sole consolation is that your Heavenly 
Father knows, stands by and promises, "My grace 
shall be sufficient for thee." 

And there are moral responsibilities, also, which 
are intransferable. Duty is a personal matter. A 
man lives in a world of responsibility which is wholly 
his own. Ich bin Ich. It is impossible to serve God 
by proxy. The great sin of Christian people is 
shirking. It is a common saying that nine-tenths of 
the work of the Christian church is done by one- 
tenth of its members. If this be true, then nine- 
tenths of Christ's people are shirking their responsi- 
bility. If you are a Christian, my friend, get under 
your burden and bear it. Don't cringe, don't com- 
plain, don't shirk. No man can do your duty for 
you any more than he can eat, drink or sleep for you. 
" You have a work that no other can do." 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 267 

It is related that when the Duke of Wellington was 
ordered to the Cape of Good Hope, a young officer 
in his regiment applied for leave of absence. The 
Duke made this laconic reply, "Sail or sell.*' Let 
us be grateful that God is so wonderfully patient with 
us. If the policy of the Iron Duke were to be en- 
forced among the churches, what disturbance there 
would be! Our Lord expects every man to do his 
duty ; and his requirement is greatly emphasized by 
the fact that he promises all necessary help, saying, 
"As thy day, so shall thy strength be." 

As to temptation also : A man must fight his own 
battle with the world, the flesh and the devil. "There 
is no discharge in this war." Here is the test of man- 
hood. This is my own fight ; and my strength is in 
the Saxon motto, "Will, God and I can!" Saul's 
armor will be of no avail. I must go out for myself 
against the giant of Gath. But nothing is required 
of me beyond the possibilities of courage. No temp- 
tation is permitted beyond what I am able to bear. 
Let me go forth in the strength of Jehovah alone and 
I shall come back, like David from the valley of El-ah, 
dragging the gory head of the adversary by its shaggy 
locks. This is the gospel of manliness. Lift thy 
burden and bear it. Be strong. Quit thyself like a 
man. 

The second proposition of the Great Law is this : ' ? Bear 
ye one another's burdens.'" For, after all, we cannot 
escape the important fact of mutual dependence and 
interdependence. Did I say we are an army on the 
march? Aye, comrades all. And if one at my side 
staggers under the heat and burden of the day, what 
then ? In the name of comradeship give him a lift! 



268 THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 

Put your canteen to his lips, shoulder his musket, 
strap his knapsack to your back. For the strong 
should bear the burdens of the weak. 

The church is likened to a body; as it is written, 
"The body is not one member but many. So that 
the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of 
thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need 
of you. But God hath tempered the body together, 
that there should be no schism in it ; but that the 
members should have the same care one for another. 
And whether one member suffer, all the members suf- 
fer with it , or one member be honored, all the mem- 
bers rejoice with it." 

The Great Law here referred to is exemplified in 
sympathy. We are exhorted to " rejoice with them 
that do rejoice and weep with them that weep." 
Who shall estimate the power of a warm hand-clasp 
in the hour of adversity? " And a word in due sea- 
son, how good it is ; it is like apples of gold in a sil- 
ver basket." The world is full of sufferers, prisoners 
of poverty, victims of misfortune ; and a kind word 
costs so little. It was for lack of sympathy that poor 
Robert Burns, weak by nature, spoiled by adulation, 
driven hither and thither by mighty passions, was 
forced out of Christian fellowship and moved to 
resentful philippics against it. 

"Oye wha are so guid yersels, 
Sae pious and sae holy, 
Ye've naught to do but mark and tell 
Your neebor's fauts and folly." 

Who knows but a kindly word, a due regard for his 
peculiar nature and circumstances, an earnest entreaty, 
might have changed the tenor of his life ? 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 269 

But sympathy is not enough; there must be practi- 
cal beneficence. To a starving beggar an ounce of 
bread is worth a ton of commiseration. An old woman 
who had known Oliver Goldsmith when he was a 
student of medicine, called on him long afterward in 
behalf of her husband, who, as she said, was suffering 
from loss of appetite and melancholy. He went with 
her to the bedside, made his diagnosis and presently 
sent her a box containing ten — borrowed — guineas, 
marked, ^ Pills: To be taken as necessity requires. 
And be of good courage.'* It is burden -bearing 
like this that makes the whole world kin. It is this 
that binds the Church together in the true fellowship 
of Christ. 

We share our mutual woes, 

Our mutual burdens bear, 
And often for each other flows 

The sympathizing tear. 

The third proposition, without which the two former 
would be antagonistic, is this : A part of every man's 
burden is to share the burden of the next man. It is im- 
possible to separate individual from social duty. One 
who undertakes to bear his own burden, with no 
regard for the burdens of others, will be sure to fail. 
A selfish Christian is a contradiction of terms. The 
true Christian is a member of the body of Christ, so 
closely associated with his fellows that all their inter- 
ests are his. It is like the intercommunication kept 
up in our physical organism by the nervous system, 
so that if one tread upon my foot, the pain goes flying 
along the electric wires of sympathy clear to the 
finger tips. 

Here is where the Anchorites made their fatal error. 



270 THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 

The man who retires to solitude for self-culture flies 
from his burden. Our Lord frequented the great 
centers of life. He joined himself to the multitudes 
who were going up to the annual feasts. He visited 
the porches of Bethesda. He came up close to the 
beating heart of humanity. He heard the cry for 
help on every side and sought to relieve it. No 
greater mistake can be made than to imagine that we 
are imitating Christ when we retire from the world to 
read mystical literature and devote ourselves to " the 
deepening of the spiritual life." 

The Great Law of Christ is so-called for three 
reasons: First, because he gave it. — Second, because 
he exemplified it in his own life among men. He 
bore his own burden; for, indeed, there was a 
burden which he alone could bear; in which no 
friendship could relieve him. At the gateway of 
Gethsernane he said to his disciples, " Tarry ye 
here while I go and pray yonder." And there, 
under the deep shadow of the olive-trees, he drank his 
bitter cup; as it is written, "I have trodden the wine- 
press alone and of the people there was none with 
me." He made no complaint, no murmuring. His 
prayer was, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me; " but when it became manifest that the bitterness 
of death was the necessary condition of the world's 
redemption, he calmly acquiesced, saying, " O my 
Father, not my will but thine be done." And there- 
upon he set his face steadfastly toward the cross. 
Such was the courage of the Perfect Man.— But 
furthermore he exemplified the Great Law in bear- 
ing the burden of others. It is written "He bare 
our griefs and carried our sorrows. We did esteem 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 27 I 

him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted; but he 
was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for 
our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was 
upon him. ,, His heart went out toward all sufferers. 
His ears were open to every cry for relief. He fed 
the hungry, opened the eyes of the blind, wiped away 
the leper's spots, ministered to sorrow, wept by the 
open grave ; and at last he climbed up Calvary stagger- 
ing under the burden of the whole world's sin. Ah, 
that was the sublimest deed of sympathy, of self- 
sacrifice, of practical beneficence, that the world ever 
saw. His heart broke in compassion for the world's 
pain, and his hands were stretched out in divinest 
charity to all the children of men. — And third, the 
Great Law of Christ is so called because he laid it 
down as the fundamental principle of his Kingdom. 
The universal observance of this Law will bring in the 
Millennium. It corresponds to the physical Law of 
Gravitation, by which all the worlds of the solar system 
are kept in proper relation to each other and to the 
central sun. If those for whom Jesus died were under 
the domination of this Law, as the stars of heaven are 
under the control of gravity, there would not be one 
lost or wayward soul in the universe. This was in the 
mind of Jesus when he said, U I pray for these; that 
they all may be one; even as thou, Father, art in me 
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that 
the world may believe that thou didst send me," 

In the Great Law, thus briefly stated, we find the 
sum and substance of the duties of the Christian life. 
Our success in right living is measured by our imita- 
tion of Christ as the Burden-bearer. Mere sentiment 
is little worth. Our religion is a matter of practical 



272 THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 

import; it is to do good as we have opportunity unto 
all men. St. Francis of Assisi is said to have retired 
from all human fellowship in his desire to attain to the 
higher life. He gave himself up in solitude to pen- 
ance and maceration. He lashed his body for the 
sins of his soul. He fasted and wept. At length, as 
he knelt under his crucifix, the sign of divine approval 
is said to have been given him. He rose with the 
stigmata in the palms of his hands. The legend is 
false ; the process is impossible. The nail-prints are 
not thus given in solitude. Nor is it by this method 
that we enter into the fellowship of Christ's suffer- 
ing. We come into sympathy with him in the thick 
of the world's conflict. We die with him when our 
hearts break in sympathetic touch with the world's 
agonizing heart. This is "the cure of souls"; this 
is the law of charity ; this is the fellowship of Christ. 
He entered into our estate; he passed under the 
lintel of human homes, toiled in the workshop, joined 
the company of wayfaring men, knelt by the bedsides 
of the sick and dying, gave comfort to the sorrowing 
in God's Acre. This was his burden because it was 
the burden of his fellow-men. 

Our invitation to the Christian life is couched in 
such terms as suggest the Great Law: "Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden," that is, 
weary with bearing the burdens of life, "and I will 
give you rest." But this rest is no exemption from 
burden-bearing, for he immediately adds, " Take my 
yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
Our rest then is in our fellowship with Christ in the 
bearing of life's burden, our own and others'. " For 



THE GREAT LAW OF CHRIST. 273 

my yoke is easy/' easy because a yoke is ever for two. 
He stands beside me, helping me to bear it. Aye, 
blessed Lord, the yoke is half thine and half mine; 
and the burden too; wherefore thou sayest truly, 
" My yoke is easy and my burden is light." 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS 

u The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him 
that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto 
them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather : for the sky is red. 
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the sky is red and 
lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky ; but can ye not 
discern the signs of the times ? "—Matthew i6, 1-3. 

It is the part of wisdom to interpret signs. He is a 
poor skipper who, trusting to his compass, makes no 
observation of the heavens. He is a poor ranchman 
who does not round up his cattle or fold his sheep 
when the thickening air tells of a coming storm. A 
week ago, in Virginia, I saw a bunch of wild violets 
in the hand of a little maid ; and straightway the ver- 
dant forests and the blooming fields were all before 
me, and I heard Charles of Orleans singing: 

" The Time hath laid his mantle by 
Of wind and rain and icy chill ; 
And stream and fountain, brook and rill, 
All in their new apparel vie ; 
For Time hath laid his mantle by." 

He is but a poor reader of the newspapers who 
cannot dream dreams and see visions between the 
lines. The duty of the hour is suggested by current 
events, as clearly as a farmer's tasks from the mar- 
ginal references of The Farmer's Almanac^ "Now plant 
corn " or "Now gather in your barley/' 

274 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 275 

At the time of our context a great crisis in Jewish 
history had come, and the religious leaders did not 
know it. They were familiar with the wisdom of the 
schools, but could not ' i take an observation. " So busy 
were they w T ith minute inspection of the jot and tittle 
of ceremonial requirement that they were in grave 
danger of overlooking the advent of their long- 
expected Christ. The fulness of time was at hand ; 
the scepter, falling from the trembling hand of 
Judah, had signaled the great event; the seventy 
weeks of years spoken of by Daniel the prophet were 
accomplished ; there was a universal feeling of expect- 
ancy; a star had risen out of Jacob; the voice of 
Elias the forerunner had been lifted up in the wilder- 
ness. But these soothsayers had lost their cunning: 
they were weatherwise but stupid in spiritual things. 
Thus Jesus reproved them; " At evening ye say, It 
will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the 
morning, It will be foul weather: for the sky is red 
and lowering. O ye pretenders, can ye not discern 
the signs of the times ? " 

We are drawing near to the border line of the cen- 
turies; and there is a universal conviction that 
mighty events are before us. The last century was 
marked by the introduction of new forces in the 
province of spiritual as of material things. Steam 
and electricity, inventions and discoveries were paral- 
leled by the development of great spiritual energies. 
With this propulsion, who shall prophesy the forth- 
comings of the next century ? " Men of thought and 
men of action, clear the way. " 

One of the most significant Signs of the Times is the 
Opening of the Doors of the Nations, A familiar prayer 



276 THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

in the Missionary Concerts of forty years ago was 
that God would prepare the way for the propagation 
of the gospel and incline the Pagan nations to receive 
it. That prayer is obsolete. The great gates have 
rolled back on their hinges and the messengers of 
salvation may go without let or hindrance to the 
uttermost parts of the earth. 

One hundred and sixty years ago an epoch-making 
book was published, entitled, "An Inquiry into the 
Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Con- 
version of the World." It created a great stir among 
the churches. The author was William Carey, " the 
consecrated cobbler " of Northamptonshire. He de- 
sired to go as a commissioned herald of the gospel 
to India, but so great was the opposition that he was 
obliged finally to sail in a Danish ship. On reaching 
his destination, he supported himself by working in 
an indigo factory, meanwhile studying the Bengali 
language. The first seven years of his work were 
without apparent result; then Krishna -Pal was 
converted. A single soul for his hire! But since 
that day the enterprise has so justified itself that 
opposition has practically ceased. The original 
proposition of William Carey was reproved in his 
Conference by a venerable minister who cried out, 
"Sit down, young man!" It would require great 
courage to repeat that injunction now; for not less 
than seven hundred thousand native Christians are in 
evidence in India. The land of the Vedas glows 
with the radiance of the Sun of Righteousness. 

In 1853 the ports of Japan were opened by Com- 
modore Perry to the commerce of the world. The 
Church with some hesitation sailed in and not 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 277 

without misgiving began her work of evangelization. 
To-day Japan is the Young America of the Orient. 
And at this moment the enterprising people of that 
country are discussing the propriety of substituting 
for their ancient establishment the religion of Christ. 
This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our 
eyes. 

It was only twenty-six years ago that David Living- 
stone died on his knees in mid Africa. The Dark 
Continent is now cobwebbed by thoroughfares of 
commercial enterprise. A railway has been projected 
from the Mediterranean to the the Cape of Good 
Hope. The slave trade has been practically extir- 
pated. And the gospel is preached from Tanganyika 
to the Congo and from the Nile to the country of the 
Boers. Thus the prophecy is fulfilled: " Ethiopia 
shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. " 

The Empire of China, surrounded by its great wall, 
has until recently resisted all foreign innovations. 
No railway could be built for fear of disturbing the 
historic rest of Fung-shui, " the spirit of the past." 
But the Great Powers of Europe have seized on many 
ports of entry ; the territory of the Celestial Empire 
is being apportioned among them. "Where the 
carcass is there the vultures are gathered together." 
What this portends remains to be seen; but one thing 
is clear, an highway is being cast up for the Evangel. 
The light of the morning is on the vultures' wings. 

Thus, one by one, the gates have been thrown 
open. God's providence is manifest. "Not by 
might nor by power,but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. " 
The fable of Aladdin before the cave, crying " Open 
Sesame!" has been realized; and by this circumstance 



278 THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

a tremendous emphasis is put upon the great com- 
mission of the Master, " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel. ,, 

Another of the important Signs of the Times is the Vol- 
unteering of Men and Women for the Propaganda. The 
old-time prayer for the opening of the gates was ac- 
companied by another, to wit, that God would send 
laborers into his harvest. That prayer, also, has 
been answered abundantly. It was a difficult matter 
half a century ago to persuade a theological stu- 
dent to enlist for foreign work; and, with rare but 
notable exceptions, such as offered themselves were 
of smaller intellectual caliber than those who re- 
mained at home. To-day, however, our Missionary 
Boards are confronted by an embarrassment of 
riches. The choicest men and women who are grad- 
uated from our institutions of secular and theological 
learning are clamoring to enter the Foreign field. 

The preaching of Peter the Hermit who went up 
and down portraying the sufferings of Christian pris- 
oners in infidel hands was followed by the uprising 
of a multitude who, with the cry, " Deus vult!" set 
forth to the conquest of the Holy Sepulcher. Won- 
derful was the power of enthusiasm in that historic 
movement; it is difficult for historians to account 
for it. 

In like manner at the beginning of our Civil War, 
when our national life and freedom were jeopardized, 
the call of President Lincoln for troops was answered 
by a militant host, who swung into line with the song, 
" We're coming, Father Abraham, a hundred thou- 
sand more! " But here is something far more wonder- 
ful. There is no appeal to the passions, but a calm 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 279 

address to brain and conscience. There is no sudden 
cry, "To arms! " nor kindling of red beacons on the 
hills ; only the calling up of an old and half-forgotten 
edict, "Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel! " 

Here is a most eloquent fact : there are two thousand 
of the very best and brightest of the educated young 
men and women of America, who stand pledged, ready 
and clamorous, to adventure their lives in the regions 
of darkness and the habitations of death for Jesus' 
sake. No longer need we pray, " O Lord, send labor- 
ers into thy harvest." The laborers are here, await- 
ing only their commissions from our Missionary 
Boards. They jostle one another in their eagerness 
to reach the yellow fields, to thrust in the sickle and 
reap. 

Still another of the significant Signs is the Success which 
has attended all Efforts at Foreign Evangelization. How- 
ever this may have been disputed hitherto, it is no 
longer an open question. None but the wilfully 
blind can ask, il Do Foreign Missions pay ? " 

The pioneer of Missions was Christ himself, the 
immediate result of whose labors was comparatively 
insignificant; not more than five hundred converts 
could be reckoned at the time of his death. His 
work was to prepare the way for the faithful dis- 
ciples, of whom he said, "The works that I do shall 
ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do, 
because I go unto my Father " ; that is, larger ingather- 
ings were to occur through their labors after he had 
breathed the power of his Spirit upon them. 

When Paul set forth on his missionary tours, the 
miracle of Pentecost had occurred and there were 



sSo THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

thousands of believers. He traversed the plains of 
Asia Minor and the mountains of Macedonia, estab- 
lished churches in coigns of vantage everywhere and 
was greatly prospered in his work. Afterward for 
more than three centuries the church seemed to fully 
realize the imperativeness of the Great Commission, 
aiming at the conquest of the world. There was no 
dearth of revivals then ; souls sprang up as willows 
by the water courses. 

In the fifth century a Scotchman named Patricius, 
familiar to us as Saint Patrick, went over to Ireland 
and won the people of that barbaric country to an 
acknowledgment of Christ. — In the seventh century 
the monk Augustine, passing through tne slave 
market at Rome, saw a group of fair-haired Saxons 
on sale. On being told that they were Angli, he 
uttered the historic words, "Non Angli sed Angeli, si 
essent Christiani" j and forthwith set out to the evan- 
gelization of their native Britain. But for that mis- 
sionary journey we ourselves, the descendants of 
those Angles, might be still going about clothed in 
skins and making our living with clubs. What an 
ingrate, then, must the Anglo-Saxon be who says, 
1 'I do not believe in Foreign Missions " ! — In the eighth 
century the monk Boniface carried the Gospel to 
Germany, hewed down the Thunderer s Oak and 
brought the people, under the power of the cross. 
Great successes these! 

Then came the Dark Ages. For a thousand years 
the Church forgot her commission ; for many centuries 
she spent her strength in vain controversies and 
vainer crusades. This culminated in an overwhelm- 
ing visitation of darkness, leading on to that period 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 28 1 

of infidelity when Voltaire, Rousseau and Thomas 
Paine won the ear of Christendom; the faithful 
meanwhile lamenting, " Who will show us any good? " 

And then the Church came to herself. The mis- 
sionary epoch began with the nineteenth century. 
There are now seventy Missionary Societies. The 
annual contributions to Foreign Missions are not less 
than fifteen millions of dollars. There are three thou- 
sand five hundred missionaries on the field, aided in 
their work by seven thousand five hundred native 
assistants. There are four millions of communi- 
cants ; and whereas there were two hundred millions 
of nominal Christians at the beginning of the present 
century, there are not less than five hundred millions 
to-day. We are justified in saying, therefore, that 
no earnest effort looking to the conversion of the 
heathen has ever been fruitless. God's promises are 
Yea and Amen. " He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again 
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. ,, 

And still another Sign of the Times is the Church's 
Return to Reason. This has been brought about by 
the inevitable logic of events. God's people have 
come to see that their business is the conquest of the 
world, the setting up of the kingdom of Christ. 

For centuries the Church was busied with the for- 
mulation of creeds and symbols. Her energy was 
expended in controversies bearing on the clear and 
proper expression of more or less fundamental doc- 
trines. No doubt this was necessary by way of prep- 
aration for other work lying further on; but the 
time for such business has gone by. — A new creed or 
catechism has recently been put forth as an expression 



282 THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

of the faith of the Nonconformist Churches of Eng- 
land. However perfect this may be, there is little 
likelihood that it will awaken any considerable en- 
thusiasm. We are too busy in these times, with the 
larger affairs of the Kingdom, to consider it gravely. 
— The President of Bowdoin College has just now 
called for a "Reconstruction of Christianity "; but 
his is a lone voice like that of the bittern. "We are 
doing a great work and cannot come down." We 
have creeds enough, some good, some otherwise. He 
is an over-critical thinker who cannot pick and choose 
to his own satisfaction from the abundant product of 
the past. 

The Church was also employed for centuries in 
Polemics, in the internecine strife of words. The 
great guns of the denominations were set over against 
each other, each seeking to " prove its doctrine ortho- 
dox by apostolic blows and knocks. " That time 
however has gone by, thank God. You know how 
Bazaine, in the Franco-Prussian War, surrendered his 
magnificent army of a hundred and eighty thousand 
men at Metz. When brought before the court- 
martial he sought to defend himself by pleading, 
" We knew not what to do. We could not determine 
the source of authority. We were not sure as to the 
complexion of the government at Paris. We sat in 
council discussing and debating in vain. ,, The presi- 
dent of the court, moved by indignation, interrupted 
him again and again with the words, " But France, 
sir! What of France, sir? " Is there not a sugges- 
tion here for those of us who insist on retraversing 
old questions of creed and ethics? Shall the conquest 
of the world be kept waiting on our deliberations? 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 283 

Shall we hold in abeyance the Master's injunction, 
" Seek ye first of all the Kingdom," while we retire 
to discuss the pros and cons of " free will, fixed fate, 
foreknowledge absolute"? Up with the red cross 
standard! On to the front! The gates of the world 
are open; the Man of Macedonia beckons us; the 
word of command rings loud and clear through the 
centuries, " Go ye, evangelize! " All other consider- 
ations sink into insignificance. We believe in Christ's 
Crown and Covenant. This is no time for parley. 
The battle is on ; the call of the Captain of our salva- 
tion is, " Go forward! " 

One other Sign of the Times demands consideration ; 
namely, the Spiking of Hostile Guns. The voice of infi- 
delity is suppressed. How marvelous the change 
since a century ago ! The one great infidel who 
keeps himself ever before the public gaze in America 
gets his only hearing among the curiosity-mongers 
and has no more influence among thoughtful people 
than if he were a swallow in a chimney. — And the 
False Religions are moribund. It was said by Max 
Miiller a quarter of a century ago that, aside from 
Christianity, there were but two living religions on 
earth, Mohammedanism and Buddhism. The former 
— representing the three great horrors, war, slavery 
and polygamy — is fighting for life in its ancient 
strongholds, making no conquests except among the 
hordes of darkest Africa: The latter, whose adher- 
ents have been variously estimated at from one to 
four hundred millions, is yielding everywhere to the 
advancing light of civilization and Christian thought. 

The only obstacle to the progress of Christianity 
worth considering to-day is within the Church. It 



284 THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

lies partly in the ignorance of Christian people. 
There are some who profess to be followers of Jesus, 
yet refuse to lend themselves to missionary enterprise 
because they are blind to current events. They would 
do well to give heed to John Wesley, who said, "I 
read the newspapers to see how God is governing the 
world. " — Other Christians seem to be indifferent ; and 
their indifference rests in unbelief. They are like the 
spies who came back from Canaan, saying, "The 
inhabitants thereof are Anakim and we were as grass- 
hoppers in their sight.'' O that they might be per- 
suaded to believe in God's leadership; for courage 
ever rests in faith. "Let us go up at once," said 
Caleb, "and possess the land, for we be well able to 
overcome them!" The word for the hour is the 
watchword of the Covenanters, * ' God with us ! " The 
world is at our feet if we believe. All things are pos- 
sible to the man or the church that believeth. "I can 
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
And now as to the personal application. First: 
It devolves on every Christian to heed the injunction 
of the Master, "Go ye." It was addressed to every 
one. No Christian is excused. Go, my friend, in 
person or by proxy. Go or send your substitute. 
"I will descend into the mine," said Carey, "if you 
will hold the rope." Have you sent your substitute 
down into the mine, my friend ? Then stand by the 
rope! Let the man who has jeopardized his life as 
your substitute, toiling amid privation and danger, 
with fire-damp all about him, know that you are 
loyally and vigilantly standing by. This is an indi- 
vidual matter. "What did you see?" asked Dr. 
Cook of a Waterloo gunner. "I saw nothing," he 



THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 285 

replied, "but dust and smoke. " — "And what did you 
do ? " — " I stood by my gun ! " 

Second; It behooves every follower of Christ to 
give, up to the full measure of his ability, for the 
carrying on of this work. The nations will never 
be evangelized until God's people realize that they 
are not their own but are bought with a price, even 
the precious blood of Jesus. It is estimated that the 
annual contribution of Christian people throughout 
the world for foreign Missions is about ten cents per 
capita. Is it not wonderful that with such a meager 
showing of consecration, the Church should have 
achieved any results at all ? We sometimes wonder 
why Christ does not come to establish his throne. 
"Why tarry the wheels of his chariot ? " cried the 
mother of Sisera, looking out at the window. It is 
plain to see why the wheels of the Lord's chariot 
tarry ; they are fast in the mire of avarice and parsi- 
mony. Ten cents per annum, for each Christian, 
for the conversion of the world ! Is there not truth 
in what Dr. Duff said, "We are playing at mis- 
sions " ? O for a baptism of the Holy Ghost to open 
the hearts of God's people! The old historian Dio- 
dorus tells of a fire in the Pyrenees which burned off 
the forests and penetrated the soil until a stream of 
pure silver gushed forth and ran down the mountain 
sides. This is a manifest fable. But there will be 
a more marvelous story to tell when the fire of God's 
Spirit shall touch the hearts of his people. What a 
burning there will be, and how the silver and the 
gold will flow together at the feet of God ! 

Finally, let us pray without ceasing for the coming 
of the kingdom of Christ. To your knees, O Israel ! 



286 THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. 

" For him shall endless prayer be made." We pray 
for ourselves, we pray for our friends, we pray for 
our enemies ; now let us pray for Christ, that his 
kingdom may stretch from the river unto the ends of 
the earth. " Help me to my knees! " said one of the 
fathers when informed that he had but an hour to 
live; " help me to my knees that I may pray for the 
conversion of the world." And there he knelt, his 
pulse growing feeble, his eyes growing dim; until 
his last word was spoken, " Thy Kingdom come!" 
Let us offer that prayer once, with all our hearts, in a 
spirit of absolute abandon of surrender, — "Thy King- 
dom come!" — and we shall never be again the same 
men. The world will grow little; the things of the 
Kingdom will fill the horizons of life; nothing will 
seem important but the salvation of souls. Use us, 
O Lord, for thy great purposes! Stimulate us to 
holy endeavor, kindle our zeal, enlarge our faith, 
baptize us with thy Spirit ! Use us to thy glory ! Thy 
Kingdom come in our hearts ! Thy Kingdom come 
among all the children of men ! Amen. 



PETER'S SALUTATORY 

" Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout 
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the 
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto 
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and 
peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, and undefined, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be 
revealed in the last time."— I. Peter i, 1-5. 

The world loves Peter. His faults, his virtues and 
his blunders were those of a large-hearted, open- 
handed man. We love him for his frankness; he 
" wore his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at." 
We love him for his enthusiasm ; when his blood was 
up let the servant of Malchus take heed ! We love 
him for his courage; once indeed he played the cow- 
ard before the pointed finger of a maid ; but once was 
enough ; he shook and trembled no more until the 
day when he entered into full fellowship with his 
Master in glorious martyrdom. 

It was a great day for Peter when the Lord found 
him mending his nets by the lakeside, and said, 
"Arise, and follow me." He left all — boats, com- 
rades, the bickering in the fish-markets, the fierce 
joy of the bracing winds of Gennesaret — and 
thenceforth devoted himself to the service of Christ. 

287 



288 PETER S SALUTATORY. 

This meant much for a sunburned fisherman, who 
had little acquaintance with schools and less taste 
for the forum. He set out, like our bold Genoese, 
blindly feeling his way, but sure of something be- 
yond, an Eldorado of duty and usefulness with gold 
at its heart and harvests on its bosom. As he passed 
on the heavens lifted and the horizons receded before 
him. There came dreams and visions; graces and 
manifold graces. His mind was broadened, his 
heart enlarged, and Simon the son of Jonas became 
" Peter, the Rock." 

For thirty years after his conversion he did not ven- 
ture to exercise the functions of a teacher. In the words 
before us we have his Salutatory, in which he shows 
himself an expert in clear and succinct statement of 
truth. He goes straight at the heart of the matter, as 
we should expect from one whose upbringing has been 
in the school of experience. This was better than to 
be a university-bred man. He had walked with 
Jesus, had seen him in the Mount of Transfigu- 
ration, had witnessed his crucifixion, had looked 
into the rifled grave in Joseph's garden. He had 
heard the mighty rushing wind at Pentecost, was 
familiar with persecution, had traversed many lands 
to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. This 
was great training, the best indeed for a teach- 
able man. An alchemist may theorize about gold, 
but he is a better financier who digs gold out of the 
bowels of the earth. Sir Isaac Newton said to Dr. 
Halley, "I am always glad to hear you speak of 
astronomy or mathematics; for those are subjects 
which you have studied and understand. But you 
should not talk of Christianity ; for you have never 



peter's salutatory. 289 

tasted of it. I have, and I am certain you know 
nothing about it." 

In these words, with which the apostle prefaces his 
General Epistles, we shall find that he practically 
sweeps the horizon of truth. He gives us, indeed, a 
System of Theology; none the less complete because 
so brief and simple. Let us see: 

I. Here is the Doctrine of Election. The words are, 
" Peter, to the elect." He knew that he was ap- 
proaching a great mystery, but that did not appal 
him. Observe, he does not undertake to explain it; 
he simply receives and commends it to believers as 
an indubitable and most comfortable fact. And 
incidentally he has several things to say about it. 

First: It is " according to the foreknowledge of 
God." So far he is on secure ground. Yet just 
here the Calvinists and the Arminians part company. 
All parties agree as to the premises; but the question 
is, Was God's foreknowledge antecedent to his decree 
or vice versd 2 Peter is neither a Calvinist nor an Ar- 
minian. Probably he would have said that the ques- 
tion of priority had no relevancy here. There can be 
no chronological sequence, no "before" or "after" 
with God. He is not subject to the limitations of time. 
Yesterday, to-day and to-morrow are alike with him. 
He whose goings forth are from eternity cannot be 
supposed to adjust his movements to the vibrations 
of a pendulum or to keep step with our procession of 
days. 

Second: Election is "through sanctification of the 
Spirit"; rather "in sanctification of the Spirit" 
(R. V.). This indicates the method by which the 
decree is carried to its conclusion. The function of 



290 PETER S SALUTATORY. 

the Holy Ghost is to produce holiness: the process 
is sanctification ; the result is Character or Godlike- 
ness. This operation of the Spirit is not momentary, 
as in the new birth, but progressive. There are per- 
sons who speak of themselves as though they " were 
already perfect"; but their lives are always in evi- 
dence against them. We grow "from grace to 
grace" under the influence of the Spirit, coming 
nearer and nearer continually to the likeness of 
Christ. Thus Peter says in another place: "Add 
to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and 
to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, 
patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godli- 
ness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, 
charity," (2 Pet. 1:5-7). In which manner, as Paul 
says, "we all with open face beholding as in a 
mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord": (2 Cor. 3: 18). 

Third: Election is "unto obedience and sprink- 
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ." The prevailing 
aversion to the Doctrine of Election is largely due 
to a misapprehension, to wit, that God by his decree 
set apart certain ones to the mere enjoyment of spe- 
cial honors and privileges. In fact the objective 
point of election is not privilege so much as duty and 
responsibility. We are not to imagine that God sur- 
veyed the coming race, as if passing them in solemn 
review, saying, "Thou to heaven" and, "Thou to 
hell." The call is to obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood; that is, to a life of purity and usefulness. 
James defines religion thus, " to visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself 



PETERS SALUTATORY. 29 1 

unspotted from the world." And Peter follows a de- 
scription of Christian living with an exhortation, — 
" Give the more diligence to make your calling and 
election sure." 

II. Here, also, is the Doctrine of Regeneration. 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath 
begotten us again"; that is, regenerated us. This 
also is a mystery, but not to be rejected on that 
account. Jesus said, "The wind bloweth where it 
listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so 
is every one that is born of the Spirit." Regeneration 
is a mysterious but visible and tangible fact. It is 
to be seen every day in the walk and conversation of 
those who have been delivered from the bonds of 
iniquity into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God. It is vitally important that we should appre- 
hend this fact, since regeneration is prerequisite to 
the eternal life; as Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except a man be born again he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God." 

Peter goes on to say of this doctrine, First, that 
we are regenerated "unto a lively hope"; better, a 
living hope. The hope referred to is not to be 
thought of as something which can be put away and 
produced on occasion, as a man shows his railway 
ticket when the conductor calls for it. The only 
hope that is worth having is like the angel that awoke 
Peter in the prison at Philippi, loosed his chains with 
a touch, bade him arise and gird himself, went before 
him through doors that opened successively at their 
approach as if the bolts were drawn by unseen hands, 



292 PETER S SALUTATORY. 

led him from ward to ward and did not leave him 
until he stood under the starry canopy of heaven. 

Second: Our regeneration is " by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead." Is it not then by 
the power of the cross ? The death of Jesus is, in- 
deed, the ground of our pardon, but the new birth 
is by the influence of that Spirit which the risen 
Christ breathes upon us. Thus it is written, "He 
was delivered for our offenses and raised again for 
our j ustification. " A deed of conveyance is ineffective 
without the seller's signature. So if Christ had not 
risen our faith would be vain, we would be still in 
our sins (1 Cor. xv. 17). But because he liveth, we 
live also. In the sprouting grain the farmer sees 
visions of yellow harvests and loaded wains and full 
granaries: so is the resurrection of Christ the proph- 
ecy and assurance of our newness of life. Regen- 
eration is wrought by the Breath of him who, in his 
triumph over death, brought life and immortality to 
light. 

Third : We are begotten again "toan inheritance 
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away." In regeneration we are received, by the 
Spirit of Adoption, into the rights and privileges of 
sonship : "If sons, then heirs, heirs of God and 
joint heirs with Jesus Christ." We partly enter upon 
our inheritance here and now. In some portions of 
Scotland it is the custom for the seller of a field to 
give to the purchaser a bit of turf which is "the 
earnest of the purchased possession." In like manner 
we have foretastes of heaven as we journey on through 
this present life. But, O! who shall describe what 
lies beyond ? Who shall say what surprises await 



PETER S SALUTATORY. 293 

those who are "made meet for the inheritance of the 
saints in light ? " In moments of spiritual exaltation 
we climb the slopes of Nebo and catch glimpses of 
the country that is afar off. In our Father's Will and 
Testament we read of "joy unspeakable and full of 
glory." Our hopes are thus quickened: as when Chris- 
tian, in The Pilgrim's Progress, standing at the gate- 
way of the Celestial City, was dazzled and bewildered 
by a momentary vision of angels, of which he said, 
" which when I saw, I wished myself among them." 

III. And here is also the Doctrine of Perseverance. 
Peter speaks of this inheritance as "reserved in 
heaven for you who are kept." A great word that, 
"kept!" It means, once a Christian, always a 
Christian. There is no "falling from grace." A 
man may fall from self-confidence, from fallacious 
hopes, from ill-grounded opinions; but from God's 
grace, never. 

This is evident from the first observation which 
Peter makes concerning this Doctrine; he says, we 
are " kept by the power of God." To expect to per- 
severe in right living by our own unaided efforts is 
as vain as it would be to seek shelter in one's shadow. 
The secret of continuance is in the motto of a famous 
Crusader; a wine glass, with a broken foot, bearing 
this inscription, "Hold thou me up!" If God lays 
hold of a man, who shall pluck him out of the 
almighty hand ? One reason why the Te Deuni has 
been kept so long in the hymnology of the Church is 
because it advances to this climacteric statement and 
petition: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let 
me never be confounded! " 

But second; we are " kept through faith." By faith 



294 PETER S SALUTATORY. 

we co-operate with the power of God. Faith is the 
reaching up of my hand to clasp God's hand. This is 
the grip that makes our perseverance sure. A woman 
stood at the window of a burning house, stretching 
out her hands and calling piteously for help. A lad- 
der was raised from the street but did not reach. A 
fireman pushed his way up the stairways and into the 
room, fastened a rope to the lintel, and grasped the 
trembling woman saying, " Hold fast!" As they 
were thus descending he felt a sudden relaxing of 
her grip and knew she had swooned; whereupon 
he tightened his hold and at length brought her to 
safety. It often happens thus in our relations with 
God. Our faith wavers, our strength fails; he 
merely holds us closer. Thus we are " kept," kept 
in our weakness, kept amid all the vicissitudes of our 
wayward life, kept by his great power; and " no 
man shall pluck us out of his hand. " The gates of 
hell shall not prevail against us. 

One thing more : we are "kept unto salvation ready 
to be revealed in the last time." This salvation be- 
gins here and now. For " there is no condemnation 
to them that are in Christ Jesus." And "he that 
believeth hath entered into life." But salvation is a 
cumulative fact; it increases more and more as life 
passes on. We are constantly entering on larger 
measures of hope and character, of usefulness and 
assurance. We know more of Christ: we drink deeper 
of spiritual peace. This is what Paul means when he 
says: "Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God that worketh in you." Work 
it out, to its logical results, day by day, until the fruits 
of the Spirit shall be realized in you. 



peter's salutatory. 295 

But this salvation can only be fully revealed "in 
the last time. " The end is glory. "Now are we 
sons of God, and it hath not yet been manifested 
what we shall be. " God's purposes do not stop 
short of the full, final, perfect consummation. As 
it is written: "Whom he foreknew, them he did 
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his 
Son, and whom he did predestinate, them he also 
called; and whom he called, them he also justi- 
fied; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" 
(Rom. 8, 29). 

Thus Peter in his Salutatory gives us a System of 
Theology in brief. It covers the whole ground: 
Election goes back into eternity ; Regeneration marks 
the beginning of the Christian life; and Perseverance 
brings us to heaven's gate. 

The words of Peter were immediately addressed 
to saints under persecution. He speaks of them as 
being "in heaviness through manifold trials. ,, The 
doctrines which he so simply enunciates were in- 
tended to alleviate their sufferings by the strength- 
ening of their faith. We, also^ are oftentimes in 
heaviness ; and our deepest comfort lies in the con- 
templation of the same mighty truths. " If God be 
for us, who can be against us ? " 

A martyr in Queen Mary's time, while on the way 
to execution, said, "One more stile and I shall be at 
heaven's gate." The pains and trials of the pilgrim- 
age are made lighter by the thought that we are 
drawing nearer "the end of our faith, even the sal- 
vation of our souls." Meanwhile, not life nor death 
can separate us from the love of God. We know 
whom we have believed and are persuaded that he is 



296 Peter's salutatory. 

able to keep that which we have committed unto 
him against that day. 

Do our souls respond to these truths of the King- 
dom ? Or are they mere dreams and visions ? Are 
they no more than problems worthy of serious 
thought; or have they so entered into our personal 
experience as to be interwoven with the tissues of 
life ? Objective truth is of little moment. The im- 
portant matter is that we should see truth with our 
eyes and handle it with our hands and give expres- 
sion to it in walk and conversation. When Merle 
d'Aubigne was a theological student at Geneva, his 
teacher Robert Haldane said to him, " You tell me 
you accept this doctrine: There it is in the Scrip- 
tures; but have you received it into your inmost 
heart ? " He was moved by that inquiry to self- 
examination. The iron entered into his soul, and, 
whereas he had previously been an enthusiastic 
student of theology, he became a living Epistle of 
Christ. We have contemplated the three great doc- 
trines which cover the Christian life: Election, 
Regeneration and Perseverance, ending in "salva- 
tion ready to be revealed in the last time." Would 
that these truths might press themselves in upon 
mind, conscience and heart, so that we might be 
able to say, "I believe!" and thenceforth to hope 
unto the end for the grace that is to be brought unto 
us at the revelation of Jesus Christ! 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS* 

" And I said, This is my infirmity ; but I will remember the years of the 
right hand of the Most High."— Psalm 77, 10. 

"The hound when he hath lost his scent/' says 
Dr. Gurnall, quaintly, " hunts backward and so re- 
covers it, and pursues his game with louder cry than 
ever." David was in low spirits: he had been com- 
plaining of a " sore which ran in the night and ceased 
not;" he had been asking, "Will the Lord be favor- 
able no more ? " He perceives however that this is 
an unworthy view of divine providence, and plucks 
up courage by a review of past mercies, saying, 
11 This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years 
of the right hand of the Most High." 

The three hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Oliver Cromwell is an occasion for serious thought 
and grateful remembrance. A cursory view of the 
intervening period will serve to show that God has 
been constantly in the world and that everything is 
going right. We shall dwell on the personal factor 
only so far as may be needful to emphasize the con- 
trast between our present civilization and that of 
three centuries ago. 

The birth of Cromwell was on April 25th, 1599, at 
Huntingdon, in the Fen Country. Those were de- 

*A sermon preached on the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Oliver Cromwell. 

297 



298 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

generate times. In England the people were over- 
burdened with taxes, likened to the frogs of Egypt 
that came up into the bedchambers and the knead- 
ing-troughs. In Ireland the Romanists were carry- 
ing matters with a high and bloody hand. In Scot- 
land the faithful were upholding " Christ's Crown and 
Covenant " and sealing their devotion with their lives. 

The Tudors were making way for the Stuarts, the 
meanest family that ever wielded a scepter. Down 
from the North Country came James I, on his way to 
Westminster. The royal cortege paused at Hunting- 
don : where, among the entertainments, was a wres- 
tling match on the green. Oliver, a promising lad of 
four years, was pitted against Prince Charles of cor- 
responding age, and threw him. It was ominous 
sport; for in coming time there would be many a 
bitter contest betwixt these two, ere the one would 
throw the other — on the headsman's block. 

The star of Popery was in the ascendant. The air 
was vibrant with the recent clangor of the bells of St. 
Bartholomew's. Only eleven years had elapsed since 
the Great Armada, sailing forth to the suppression of 
Protestantism, had been scattered by God's breath in 
lamentable wreck. In Oliver's sixth year he must 
have heard of certain kegs of powder discovered 
under Westminster Hall, placed there with the pur- 
pose of blowing Parliament into the air. In his 
twelfth year the King James Version of the Holy 
Scriptures was given to the world. Up to that time 
the Bible was practically unknown to the common 
people, but thenceforth, as Wickliffe had prophesied, 
" a mere ploughman might know the whole counsel 
of God.'* 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 299 

In 1616 Cromwell was matriculated at Cambridge. 
Here we note a strange coincidence: at the very time 
when his name was entered on the roster of the Uni- 
versity, thus, — " Oliverius Crotnwell, admissus in com- 
meatum socioriutn" — another inscription was being 
made on the stone floor of Stratford Church not 
far away, "Here lies William Shakespeare. Good 
friend, for Jesus' sake, forbear to move these bones.'* 
This marked the passing of the Golden Age of Eng- 
lish Literature to make way for the Great Contro- 
versy of civil and ecclesiastical freedom. 

On leaving Cambridge the youth went up to Lon- 
don to the Inns of Court. While there, bending over 
his law books, he could not have been unmindful of 
events occurring about him. No doubt he followed 
the crowd to Tower Hill to witness the execution of 
Sir Walter Raleigh; he may have seen him on the 
scaffold, drawing his finger along the edge of the 
headsman's ax with the remark, "This is a sharp 
medicine, but it cures all ills. " He must have learned, 
also, at about the same time, of the sailing of a ship 
called the Mayflower from Delft Haven, in which an 
historic company of adventurous souls set forth in 
earnest quest of freedom to worship God. 

The times were out of joint, indeed. And what 
room was there in the cloisters for a youth whose 
soul was vexed with the great problem of human 
rights ? In sore trouble and bewilderment he re- 
turned to Huntingdon, to busy himself in "mowing, 
milking and marketing, " meanwhile, as Milton says, 
"enlarging his soul in a quiet bosom for more ex- 
alted times. ,, 

His call to public service came in 1628, when the 



300 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

people of the Fen Country sent him to Parliament to 
defend their rights. They had by persistent toil 
recovered four thousand acres of swamp land, of 
which the King now claimed a moiety. It fell upon 
Cromwell to resist this claim. In Parliament, where 
he was known as the "Lord of the Fens," he attended 
strictly to the business in hand. His only speech on 
any question of general importance was brief and to 
the point, as follows: "Mr. Speaker: I have heard 
that Doctor Alabaster hath preached flat Popery at 
Paul's Cross; and that the Bishop of Winchester hath 
promised him promotion. Is this the path of eccle- 
siastical preferment? If this be done in the green 
tree, what shall be expected in the dry ?" 

So little stir did he make in Parliament that he 
almost failed of re-election. One vote determined it 
— a slight margin when we consider that the body 
now to assemble was the Long Parliament, in which 
must be discussed with white-hot earnestness the 
question, Jus divinum versus Popular Rights. The 
climax of that controversy was reached when Crom- 
well moved that the power of the militia should rest 
no longer in the Crown but in the Parliament. Then 
came the tug of war. The King entered Westminster 
Hall with a band of soldiery and sought to arrest the 
prime movers. Never had the privileges of the place 
been so violated. As the King passed out into 
the street his chariot was followed by a multitude. 
Ominous voices were heard: "To your tents, O 
Israel ! " His majesty, fearing the rising storm, betook 
himself to flight, to be seen no more in London until 
he stepped upon the scaffold whereon he was to die. 

It is now 1642. We salute Captain Cromwell of 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 301 

the 7th Troop. His followers, recruited from among 
the short-haired yeomen, are called " Roundheads." 
He is to share with Prince Rupert of the Cavaliers 
the honors of military leadership in the approaching 
conflict. You may see the portraits of these men in 
Warwick Castle. The death-mask of Cromwell 
represents a face strong and rugged, as if carved out 
of gnarled oak. The other portrait is of a smiling 
cavalier, with light hair falling over a velvet doublet. 
The cry of the Roundheads was, " God with us!" 
that of Prince Rupert's men, " Hey for cavaliers! " 

Their first meeting was at Marston Moor, where 
five thousand of the royalists were slain ; their last 
was at Naseby, where the royal hosts were scattered 
like chaff from the threshing-floor. In the royal 
carriage, which was captured that day, were found 
such proofs of the King's perfidy, that the Scotch, 
among whom he had taken refuge, were constrained 
to surrender him. He was condemned by due proc- 
ess and died on Tower Hill. 

It could be wished that the story of Cromwell 
ended here ; but justice requires some reference to 
the darker side of his life and character. One of the 
blots upon his memory is the record of his campaign in 
Ireland, where he swept the country as with a besom 
from Glengariffe to the Lakes of Killarney. The 
little children in that " Land of Sorrows " are fright- 
ened by "the curse of Cromwell" to this day. — An- 
other was his campaign in Scotland, where he led 
his Roundheads in a fierce campaign against the 
Covenanters, his former comrades-in-arms. It was a 
black night when he fought old David Lesley and 
his ill-armed men at Dunbar, scattering them amid 



302 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

the growing corn and gorse. It was a darker day 
when he swept them through the streets of Worces- 
ter, to the fierce music of the Imprecatory Psalms. 
Prince Charles looked on from the cathedral spire 
and, seeing the rout of his partisans, betook himself 
in a boat to the shores of Normandy, from whence 
he was destined to come again in fulness of time 
with waving banners. 

My Lord General, returning from these campaigns 
to London, was received with acclamations of wel- 
come. " Praise me not," he said; "but give all glory 
to God!" 

The Rump Parliament was then in session. Crom- 
well as Commander of the Army had no more right 
in that assemblage than the humblest yeoman ; but 
he said, " Necessity is upon me." He entered with a 
guard of musketeers and pointing to the golden 
mace, said "Take away yon bauble!" He then 
commanded the legislators to retire, locked the door 
and took the key away with him. 

That was the end of the English Commonwealth. 
There was no authority in England thenceforth but that 
of My Lord General. He ruled as a military dictator. 
He convened the Barebones Parliament, its members 
of his own appointment, and presently dissolved it. 
He then named a military commission, by which he 
was created Lord Protector of England. He declined 
the offer of the crown with the significant words: " I 
have the thing; what care I for the name ? It would 
be no more than another feather in my hat. " The land 
prospered under the four years of his arbitrary rule. 

And then, in 1658, he died. It was a stormy 
Monday night in August; and amid the tumult of 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 303 

the winds his prayer was heard: "O Lord, I am a 
miserable sinner; but I am in covenant with thee, 
and thou wilt not leave me." 

No sooner was his death announced than his work 
seemed to fall asunder like a house of cards. Charles 
came from over the sea. The body of Cromwell was 
taken from Westminster Abbey and his skull was 
affixed to the archway of Westminster Hall. But 
" they never fail who die " or live " in a great cause." 
It is easy now, looking backward over three centries, 
to perceive how the great Roundhead has impressed 
himself on history. In this brief resume of his life 
and labors we have gained a somewhat comprehensive 
view of the conditions of his time: let us now turn to 
the developments of the three succeeding centuries, 
as they are formulated in our present civilization. 

I. At the outset, we observe a new Ideal of Character. 
It is impossible to judge Cromwell with any measure 
of justness by the standards of to-day. If President 
McKinley were to enter our National Congress and 
dissolve it with an imperious word; if he were to 
take command of a troop of cavalry and sweep 
through Georgia to vindicate the rights of the colored 
people; if he were to eject from their pulpits all 
ministers declining to fall in with his religious con- 
victions; if he were to usurp all the functions of the 
judicial, legislative and executive departments of our 
Government for the execution of personal plans; such 
measures would be regarded as high-handed. In 
Cromwell they can only measurably be excused by 
the necessity of the occasion and the customs of the 
time. At the close of his Scotch campaign he sent 
two shiploads of Covenanters over to Massachusetts 



304 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

to be sold into slavery. A letter of the Reverend John 
Cotton of Boston to Cromwell, under date July 25th, 
1 65 1, reads as follows: "The Scots, whom God de- 
livered into your hands, have arrived hither. We 
have been desirous to make their yoke easy. Such as 
were sick of scurvy and other diseases have not wanted 
physic. We have not sold them into perpetual serv- 
itude, but to terms of six or seven or eight years, 
as the case may be." Such conduct is surely not up 
to the requirements of these days. We have passed 
on to better things. It is not for nothing that the 
world has for three centuries been gazing on the pic- 
ture of the ideal Man. 

Ring out the old, ring in the new ! 
Ring out the false, ring in the true! 
Ring out old shapes of foul disease, 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 
Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The larger heart \ and kindlier hand. 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be ! 

II. // is, moreover, a new world that we are living in. 
In Cromwell's time the greatest of nations was Hol- 
land. There was the center of universal industry. 
There only had the controversy of civil and eccle- 
siastical freedom been fought to a finish. Holland 
alone afforded a safe refuge for all the proscribed and 
suffering of the earth. 

Spain was her only rival ; a nation of adventurous 
navigators going out in all directions " strange 
countries for to see." 

As for England, it was an island about as large as 
the Commonwealth of New York. Its importance 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 305 

among the nations began with Oliver Cromwell. He 
was the greatest Englishman that ever lived. He was 
the maker of England. By a proscriptive tariff he 
succeeded in building up her industries at the 
expense of her neighbors; then, sending forth 
Admiral Blake with a whip at his masthead, he 
scourged Van Tromp from the seas, opened all ave- 
nues of commerce and invited the world to come and 
trade with England. And her supremacy has con- 
tinued until this day. 

Holland is now a fourth-rate power; Spain is no 
longer to be reckoned with; England is at the fore- 
front. How long her pre-eminence will continue 
remains to be seen. Russia, Germany, France, 
Japan and America are factors of increasing impor- 
tance in the problem. In any ease, it is obvious that 
the world is a far larger world and the relations of 
the nations more complicated than in Cromwell's 
time. 

III. The Importance of the People must be named as 
another of the important developments of the last three 
centuries. Cromwell assumed to be the defender of 
Popular Rights; in point of fact he was never the 
chosen representative of the people. He confessed 
as much on his return from Ireland when, marching 
past Temple Bar, he said: "A great multitude have 
come forth to greet me; but there would be a greater 
if I were to be hanged this day." Indeed there were 
no People, as we understand the term, in those days. 
The people were mere flies, earth-worms. Magna 
Charta had vindicated the barons; but the value of 
man as man had scarcely been discovered. There 
were rumblings and mutterings as of pent-up fire: 



306 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

but the French Revolution was yet to come. Burns 
had not sung "A man's a man for a' that." True, 
Cromwell was ahead of his time; but there was less 
of promise for the cause of the People in his preten- 
tious " Commonwealth " than in the modest cabin of 
the ship that sailed from Delft Haven; for there John 
Carver was presently made, by popular suffrage, the 
Governor of a new Colony, and a mighty truth was 
born which was destined to proclaim itself from Inde- 
pendence Hall in the historic words, ' ' All men are born 
free and equal and with certain inalienable rights." 

IV. There is, also, a new conception of the Church to-day. 
In Cromwell's time the prevailing opinion was in 
favor of uniformity. There was no room on earth 
for both Catholicism and Protestantism; one must 
die the death. The Pope wished all to be Catholics: 
Archbishop Laud was determined that all should be 
Episcopalians : there were some foolish folk in Scot- 
land who were minded to have none but Presbyterians 
in the world: and Cromwell, setting himself against 
Popery, Prelacy and Presbytery alike, was resolved 
that all should be Independents. 

There are persons now who clamor for a similar 
" Church-union "; but thoughtful people are for the 
most part convinced that denominationalism gives 
the best expression of religious freedom. It is need- 
ful of course that the lines of cleavage should be such 
that the various parts may recognize each other as 
members of the one body of Christ. It is a wise say- 
ing: "In essentials unity, in nonessentials diversity, 
in all things charity." This thought of division 
along rational lines, with agreement as to cardinal 
principles, marks a distinct advance. For there can 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 307 

be no freedom of conscience unless there be room for 
difference of opinion and for segregation. In this 
process of segregation there has naturally been more 
or less of acrid controversy; but the various branches 
of the Christian Church are coming closer together 
every day in comity and cooperation : they are seeing 
face to face and eye to eye; they are advancing to 
conquest like Israel in tribal hosts, all following the 
banner of the Lion of Judah. 

V. We observe, furthermore, a new view of the Relation 
of Church and State. Three centuries ago, it was not 
supposed that the Church could exist without the 
protection of the secular arm, or that a nation could 
be other than godless without a religious "establish- 
ment." This union has been justly characterized by a 
famous Irishman as * i That foul and adulterous connec- 
tion which pollutes the purity of heaven with the abom- 
ination of earth, and hangs the tattered rags of political 
piety on the insulted cross of a crucified Redeemer." 

The corruption of the faith of Germany is largely 
due to the fact that the War Lord as head of the 
National Church has full power of appointment to all 
chairs of religious instruction ; so that the German 
Universities have been hotbeds of infidelity. The 
English Establishment also has been a prolific mother 
of abominations. This union of Church and State is 
against nature. It involves an obvious violation of 
the rights of conscience as between man and man. 
It fosters a spirit of fawning sycophancy which has 
won for the pulpit the name "Coward's Castle." 
There are no more shameless paupers than cer- 
tain men in holy orders, with fat livings, who dare 
not call their souls their own, yet look down upon 



308 THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

' l dissenters " of larger piety and knowledge as an 
inferior order. Let us praise God that the days of dis- 
establishment seem to be drawing nigh. Not until this 
age-old evil is eradicated can there be any real parity of 
the clergy or just distribution of rights among men. 

VI. And finally, the Field of Action has changed. 
In Cromwell's time all important questions were set- 
tled by the arbitrament of the sword. The Refor- 
mation itself was a battle of a hundred years, in 
which the whole world was embroiled. That was the 
fashion of those days. Thank God, we are breaking 
away from it. 

War is coming to be looked upon with righteous 
horror. Never was a more righteous conflict than 
ours with Spain. Yet how reluctantly we entered 
upon it, and with what consideration of humanity it 
was carried on. Where war is deemed necessary it 
is waged under the Code of Nations. There is a new 
science of International Law. The only further step 
is Arbitration. Then God will break the spear in 
sunder and cast the chariot into the fire. 

In any case the Kingdom of Christ can no more be 
propagated by the sword. The Roundheads heard 
the voice of the Lord saying, " Go fight! " We hear 
him saying, " Go preach! " He has an army in the 
field to-day made up of the bravest men that ever 
enlisted in a noble cause. They are braver than the 
Roundheads, braver than the Covenanters, braver 
than the Huguenots, braver than the Beggars of 
Holland. They represent every nation in Christen- 
dom ; they are at the front in the high places of the 
field. They are climbing the mountains, not as 
Napoleon's troops climbed the Alps, with great guns: 



THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 309 

they are crossing the plains, not as the Roundheads 
crossed the Scottish Moors, with crossbows and cul- 
verins. " How beautiful upon the mountains are 
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that pub- 
lisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, 
that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy 
God reigneth! " The Church wants no other army. 
Her missionaries are gone abroad with the evangel ; 
they are the vanguard of civilization. They are 
bringing in the nations as prisoners of hope: they 
are heralds of the coming of Christ. 

Our brief and cursory retrospect has shown us some 
of the significant developments of three centuries of 
Christian Civilization, How would Cromwell stand 
amazed could he return to day! In his time there 
were a hundred millions of nominal Christians; to- 
day there are five hundred millions under the lumi- 
nous shadow of the cross. And who shall lift the veil 
of the next century? For all this is a mere prepara- 
tion for larger things. God is in the world ; and the 
world grows better every day. We may not general- 
ize amid the smoke of battle ; but the backward look 
makes one thing clear: Everything is going right. The 
" one far-off divine event to which the whole creation 
moves,'' comes nearer every day. The future of 
Christ's Kingdom is assured. Let us to the watch- 
tower; the King's banners are waving on the distant 
hills; the salvation of the world draweth near. 

1 There's a fount about to stream, 
There's a light about to gleam, 
There's a midnight darkness changing into day ; 
Men of thought and men of action, 
Clear the way ! " 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT 

41 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the 
Lord had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall 
not eat of every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto the serpent, 
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden : but of the fruit of the tree 
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, 
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, 
Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, 
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it 
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took 
of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her ; 
and he did eat." — Genesis 3, 1-6. 

Of course you understand this is a mere " fable." 
The old Book as interpreted by advanced scholar- 
ship, is full of such folklore, legend, and artful fabri- 
cation. All its references to the supernatural must 
be understood in that way. Is it the fault of eminent 
critics if the sacred volume is thus exposed as an 
incongruous mixture of truth and falsehood ? Cer- 
tainly not! For are not these critics open and 
avowed lovers of Holy Writ ? If they seem to be 
vociferous at times in impugning its truth, it is only 
under the extreme pressure of conscience; the same 
conscience which pathetically asserts their devotion 
to the Scriptures as the veritable Word of God. 

A paper was recently read in one of our ministerial 
circles on "The Decline of the Revival. ,, There 
was a time when God's Spirit came down upon 

(310) 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 31I 

Churches and communities in widespread quickening; 
so that Christians, as with one accord, gave them- 
selves anew to faithful service, and the unconverted 
being pricked to the heart cried, "Men and breth- 
ren, what shall we do ? " Then the cords of the 
Tabernacle were lengthened, and souls sprang up like 
willows by the water courses. But how can such 
visitations of blessing be expected when not a few 
of God's ministers deny the authority of his Word ; 
and the laity, in many quarters, lend their counte- 
nance to pulpit pronunciamentos which surpass the 
infidelity of Thomas Paine and his confreres of a 
hundred years ago? "For the time will come," 
wrote Paul to Timothy, "when they will not endure 
the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will 
heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts, 
and will turn away their ears from the truth and 
turn aside unto fables." God will not bless his 
people under such conditions. The watchword for 
the hour should be, Back to the Bible! We can look 
for no better spiritual conditions until we show our- 
selves loyal to the divine oracles; for both conver- 
sion and sanctification are wrought by the power of 
the Spirit through the Word of God. 

It need scarcely be said that the Bible is in no 
danger of being overthrown by such assaults. The 
only danger is of disaster to its enemies and an utter 
decay of faith on the part of those who follow them. 
' ' The voice said, 'Cry ! ' — And he answered ' What shall 
I cry? ' — c All flesh is grass, and all the goodli- 
ness thereof is as the flower of the field : the grass 
withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our 
God shall stand forever! ' " A Spanish frigate in the 



312 THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, 

West Indies fired all night on a hostile ship which 
loomed through the mists in the offing. Broadside on 
broadside was vainly poured upon it. The sun arose 
and there it stood; a great, silent rock, towering 
out of the sea. So has the word of the Lord endured 
the assault of its enemies through the centuries, and 
so shall it abide forever. 

" Hammer away, ye rebel bands ; 
Your hammers break, God's anvil stands." 

As to this particular "myth," concerning the Fall 
of Man, there is this to be said; it rests upon data 
which cannot be denied. Here we are; the Race is 
not a myth; and by practically universal consent the 
Race is traced backward to a single pair. Here, 
also, is Sin; Sin is not a myth; and it must have 
had a beginning. Why mayit not have begun in this 
way? 

The Greeks trace its origin to Prometheus, who 
stole fire from the gods and gave it to men. — The 
Persians trace it to the whisper of the serpent: "All 
gracious things are from the Black Ahriman; " which 
men believed and, lo ! of a hundred excellencies all but 
one departed from them. — The Buddhists tell of a 
Golden Age when the leaves never withered and sor- 
row was unknown ; but men ate of a scum that looked 
like honeydew; a lie was uttered; a gray hair was 
seen; and " so came death into the world and all our 
woe." All the false religions give some account, 
more or less grotesque, of the origin of evil ; in com- 
parison with which the Scriptural statement, for its 
straightforward simplicity and reasonableness, com- 
mends itself to fair-minded men. 

The First Item in the narrative is Man; that is, ge- 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 313 

neric Man; Adam and Eve here standing as the com- 
plex head of the race. The end of man's creation 
was the glory of God. It is written that God, behold- 
ing his finished creation, pronounced it " very good"; 
but as yet there was no creature to look upward and 
say, "I thank thee!" Wherefore God created man 
in his own likeness and after his image, breathing 
into his nostrils the breath of life and making him a 
living soul. 

(1) He was a rational being. The Greeks called 
him anthropos; that is, " the uplooker." Plato said, 
" He is an heavenly plant rising as from a root and 
blossoming toward heaven. " Keppler said, u We are 
able to think God's thoughts after him." 

(2) He was also a moral being; that is, capable of 
moral character. One of the philosophers defined 
man as "the animal that laughs; " another as " the 
animal that has thumbs." Benjamin Franklin called 
him "the tool-making animal"; and Adam Smith, 
" the animal that makes bargains. " The one feature, 
however, which differentiates him from all the other 
orders of being is his ability to discriminate between 
right and wrong; or, as Socrates would say, between 
" the worse and better reason." 

(3) He is also free; that is, possessed of a sover- 
eign will. This is involved in his creation after the 
likeness of God. He was made sinless but not right- 
eous. His innocency was that of a graven image; 
righteousness must be acquired by ordeal. Herein 
is the making of a man. A magnificent outlook is 
before Adam if he will choose aright; if he will avoid 
the evil and prefer the good. But he must determine 
for himself. 



314 THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 

Not long ago " The Oregon " was launched from 
a shipyard at the Golden Gate, and by -and -by 
set out for a voyage around The Horn. It remained 
to be seen whether she would prove herself a staunch 
and trustworthy man-of-war. At length she came 
plowing up along the Atlantic coast and was placed 
in service as a tried and trusty craft ; she had ' 'rounded 
the Horn." Thus at man's creation he was exposed 
to trial; the test was temptation; the issue was char- 
acter. We await the outcome; the destiny of the 
race depends upon it. 

The Second Item in the narrative is the Tree. At this 
point the small scholars begin to question whether or 
no it was a fig-tree, an apple-tree or a grapevine. Is 
it not wearisome to sit by and hearken to learned 
disquisitions on the grain and fiber of wood, when 
Destiny is in the balance? Out upon the learn- 
ing that expends itself on the jot and tittle! We 
stand among the cafions of the Yosemite, overarched 
by God's great conopy, with peaks and chasms of 
sublimity all around us, and are interrupted in our 
silent wonder by the tap-tapping of a hammer; a 
geologist in the company is chipping off specimens 
for a High School Museum ! In point of fact it mat- 
ters not what particular tree of Paradise was used for 
the testing of Adam ; one would answer as well as 
another, since the question involved was obedience 
to divine law. 

The Fall of Adam was most unjustifiable since the 
advantage was so greatly in his favor. He had no 
need of the fruit of that particular tree. The garden 
was full of others, laden with fruit pleasant to the 
eye and sweet to the taste, and God had said, " Of 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 315 

every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but 
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou 
shalt not eat of it." — Moreover, the man had no pred- 
ilection for the fruit of that tree ; its taste was not 
yet upon his lips. Alas for us! we are handicapped 
by having formed the habit of sin. We have made 
the acquaintance of Vice, of which it is written, " Fa- 
miliar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then 
embrace." Resistance is hard for us. — And still fur- 
ther, Adam had been distinctly warned: " In the day 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 

The Third Item in the narrative is the Serpent. At this 
point the small scholars wish to be heard again ; but 
their objections are of slight consequence. If Satan 
is to appear at all, it might as well be in the form of 
a serpent as any other. He would not be permitted 
to come as an angel of light, for that would put the 
man at a disadvantage. Nor, on the other hand, 
would he choose to appear with hoofs and horns, for 
this would have been to defeat his own purpose. He 
would be likely to present himself in such guise as 
would give to temptation its most subtle and alluring 
form. 

It is a fact of singular importance, in view of pres- 
ent conditions, that the temptation on this occasion 
was directed at Adam's faith in the divine Word. To 
begin with there was a suggestion of doubt as to its 
authenticity; "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not 
eat ? " The serpent intimates that the communication 
had really not proceeded from the Lord, but was a 
myth or fable, a dream perhaps, or figment of the 
imagination. At this point his appeal was to the 
inner consciousness as the ultimate authority in 



316 THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 

matters of truth. "Did God, indeed, say this? Does 
it sound like him? " — Next there was a suggestion of 
doubt as to the inerrancy of the Word; "And the 
serpent said unto the woman, ' Ye shall not surely 
die;'" that is, it could scarcely be that God meant 
what he said ; inasmuch as the penalty was so far out 
of proportion to the trifling offense of tasting the 
fruit of a certain tree. Here again the inner con- 
sciousness is appealed to as against an ipse dixit. — 
Furthermore, there was an intimation of doubt as to 
the sufficiency and completeness of the Word: " For 
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then 
your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods 
knowing good and evil;" that is, revelation was 
good enough so far as it went, but here was a subtle 
scholar who, by throwing light on the divine motives, 
could make a substantial addition to it. 

So far as appears, there is only one thing to the 
serpent's credit in this transaction ; to wit, he made 
no profession of loyalty to the Word. So far forth, 
he was an honest serpent. He did not ask nor profess 
to be in holy orders. He uttered no unctuous phrases 
respecting his acceptance of the fallible Word as an 
" infallible rule of faith and practice " or his devotion 
to it, despite its manifest falseness, as the veritable 
Word of God. 

The Fourth Item in the narrative is Death. The or- 
der is, Sin, shame or loss of self-respect ("they cov- 
ered themselves with fig-leaves "), and then alienation 
from God ("the Lord called unto Adam, Where art 
thou? And he answered, I heard thy voice in the 
garden and I was afraid and hid myself "). But yes- 
terday no sound of singing bird or murmuring brook 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 317 

was so sweet to Adam as the Voice ; now he fears 
and trembles to hear it. This is death, to flee from 
God. This is hell, to be forever exiled from him. 

" And they did eat! " How simply it is told; but 
what a terrific fact is here. One may hear afar off 
the sobs and groans of coming generations in bond- 
age under sin; the rattle of chains and clang of prison- 
bolts ; the voice of heated strife ; the roll of chariots 
and clash of swords. The Reign of Terror has begun. 
The choice has been made between good and evil, 
and the race, descended from Adam as its federal 
and natural head, must suffer for it. 

The imputation of Adam's sin may be disposed of 
in few words. There is a common aversion to the 
so-called Doctrine of " Original Sin. " If the phrase 
is offensive let us have done with it. There is, how- 
ever, a scientific fact which meets with general 
acceptance in our time, known as " Heredity." 
This will answer every purpose. There is indeed 
no disposition in any quarter to deny the transmis- 
sion of moral evil through the veins of the children 
of men. 

It remains to mention the sequel. No sooner had 
Adam sinned than God gave the prophecy of Christ: 
The Seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head 
and it shall bruise his heel. Here is the Protevangel; 
the germ of all the Messianic prophecies. It shines 
forth like a star through a rift in the midnight clouds ; 
it will presently be followed by another star, and yet 
another, until the blue dome of Revelation shall be 
11 thick inlaid with patines of bright gold"; then the 
bright and morning star with healing in its beams, 
and then a burst of glory. The day breaks, with the 



318 THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 

angels' song, " Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
earth and good will toward men." 

It is written that the gateway of Eden was guarded 
by cherubim and "a flaming sword which turned 
every way." But scarcely had the man and woman 
issued from the garden ere they built an altar, on 
which they offered a sacrifice, the blood of which was 
eloquent of the coming of this Seed of Woman, who 
in fulness of time should by dying expiate their sin. 
And from the open heavens there came a voice — the 
Voice which they had dreaded to hear — to be heard 
thenceforth all along the ages, full of lovingkind- 
ness and tender mercy, "Come! Come! Come, saith 
the Lord; let us reason together; though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow! " 

The practical question is not as to the origin of 
sin ; but rather, How shall we escape from it ? The 
man who finds himself in a burning house will not 
pause to analyze caloric or institute an inquiry as to 
the origin of the flame. He seeks the stairway, the 
fire-escape. Sin is a patent fact; its danger is uni- 
versally felt in "a certain fearful looking-for of 
judgment. ,, Is there away out? Aye, blessed be 
God! " This is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners. — He bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree. — Whosoever be- 
lieveth in him hath everlasting life. " 

As I sat in my study yesterday, a strange visitor 
was announced : a Syrian priest of Aleppo who, for 
the truth's sake, had been driven from home and 
obliged to seek refuge beyond the sea. He could 
speak scarcely a word of the English tongue, but 
brought a satisfactory letter of credence from the 



THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 319 

Missionary College in Beirut. I strove in vain to 
converse with him. He could understand only a few 
simple phrases ; but his eyes kindled at every men- 
tion of the name of Jesus. Finally I said, "You 
believe the gospel?" The word "believe" seemed 
to puzzle him. He knit his brows, as if trying to 
recollect where he had heard it ; then in slow, meas- 
ured tones he repeated: " God-so— loved-the— worl d- 
that-he-gave-his-only-begotten-Son-that-whosoever- 
believeth— in-him— should— not— perish— but-have—eter- 
nal-life. " So much he knew as the ground and pillar 
of his faith. And, dear friends, what more can be asked 
of any ? It is the great crucial fact of our religion. 
He who accepts that in sincerity will stagger at no 
other Scripture. All theology is here; all Christian- 
ity is here. Sin ruined the race; but God so loved 
the world that he gave his only-begotten Son to 
redeem it. 



"AT THEIR WITS' END" 

44 And they are at their wits' end."— Psalm 107, 27. 

The men who "go down to the sea in ships and 
do business in great waters," are proverbially super- 
stitious. It is due, perhaps, to their living in con- 
stant touch with the supernatural: for there is but 
an inch of oaken plank at any moment between them 
and the unseen world. The horseshoe nailed to the 
mast is a rude tribute to this fact. The seafaring 
man knows that he is in the grip of an unseen power- 
his helplessness is ever before him. 

In our context we have a vivid picture of a storm. 
The winds and waves are roaring: the ship mounts 
up to heaven and plunges again into the depths ; the 
soul of the hardy crew is melted within them ; they 
reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and 
are at their wits' end. What then ? What do men in 
sore extremity always do? " They cry unto the 
Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of 
their distresses." 

Is there one of us who does not understand, from 
personal experience, that phrase "at their wits* 
end " ? Are we not ever coming up against our limi- 
tations ? There are times of perplexity and bewilder- 
ment when we respond instinctively to the droll 
words of Alexander Pope : 

(32°) 



AT THEIR WITS END. 32 1 

'" You beat your pate, hoping your wits will come ; 
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home." 

What is to be done under such circumstances ? 
What is to be done when the night closes in and 
Euroclydon is upon us ? We can do no better than 
follow the example of Paul and his companions when 
they were driven up and down in Adria; they " let 
go four anchors from the stern and wished for the 
day." It is vain to sit gloomily in the cabin discuss- 
ing the vibratory theory of light; equally vain to go 
on deck and hang lanterns at peak and topmast. 
God alone can give the morning; he alone can relieve 
distress; the part of reason is to call upon him and 
expect the day. 

It is not my purpose to generalize in this discourse, 
tout to address seven persons in particular. I feel 
quite sure of their presence in this assemblage, and 
am equally confident that they are all at their wits' end. 

The first man is one who is searching for truth. I 
give you credit, friend, for a sincere desire to reach a 
just solution of the great problems of the eternal life; 
but you are overwhelmed with doubt and are in dan- 
ger of downright unbelief. Is it not so? You have 
been trusting to your own wisdom and the inevitable 
has come; you are at your wits' end. 

In the innocent years of childhood we believe as a 
matter of course. The cold shadows of a cynical 
and materialistic world have not yet closed around 
us, and all verities seem near by. We reach after 
the stars, as for flowers growing along the way. The 
rainbow is just yonder; we approach it as confidently 
as children of larger growth pass under triumphal 
arches. The heavens are but the overhanging cur- 



322 AT THEIR WITS' END. 

tains of our playhouse. O, blessed childhood ! Is it 
not wisely written, " Except ye become as little chil- 
dren ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God" ? 

But in the progress of the years all truths recede ; 
the stars, the rainbow and the sky are farther and 
farther from us. We begin to inquire, " Is there a 
God ? " and, " If a man die, will he live again ? " We 
doubt and reason and apply the scientific processes of 
analysis to problems that can only be solved by faith. 
The real conflict of the soul is when the Argonauts 
are thus on their way to Colchis. On the open sea 
we are beaten about by contrary winds; we can 
manage the rigging, but the stress of the elements is 
beyond us; vain is the hope of ever finding and secur- 
ing the Golden Fleece. Vain indeed unless in recog- 
nition of our infirmity we cry unto God! 

Is it any wonder that we are worsted in spiritual 
argument when we insist on meeting the adversary 
on his own ground ? Doubt yields to faith alone. 
Our unaided wits are ever at a disadvantage. But 
God's wisdom is infinite: there is no searching of 
his understanding. If we fail to appeal to that, the 
outcome is inevitable ; doubt deepens into agnosticism 
and agnosticism into the black midnight of unbelief. 
It would have been well had we recognized our limi- 
tations long ago. The wisdom of Socrates was mani- 
fest in the remark, "I know only that I know little 
or nothing at all." If you have come to that conclu- 
sion, friend, you must see the reasonableness of 
prayer. Here is the promise for you: " If any man 
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be 
given him " (James i : 5). 



AT THEIR WITS END. 323 

The second man whom I wish to address is one under 
conviction of sin. All are sinners. It is not my 
purpose to carry coals to Newcastle by trying to 
demonstrate a fact which is present to the inner con- 
sciousness of all. But there is a time when the con- 
sciousness of sin sweeps over the soul with the 
gathering force of a tempest; when a man feels the 
exceeding sinfulness of sin, is oppressed with a cer- 
tain fearful looking-for of judgment, beats upon his 
breast in utter helplessness and confesses that he is 
at his wits' end. 

It was so on the Day of Pentecost when the 
assembled people realized the presence of God's 
Spirit in the sound of a rushing mighty wind. And 
when one arose in the midst and pointed out their 
guilt as accessory to the crucifixion of the Just One, 
showing the red stains of murder on their hands, 
they were pricked to the heart and cried out, " Men 
and brethren, what shall we do?" It may be that 
you, my friend, by some visitation of adversity or 
extraordinary demonstration of the supernatural, 
have been driven to a like extremity. What, then, 
will you do ? Penance ? Nay; it is unnecessary to 
tell a thoughtful man that fire cannot burn out guilt 
or that expiation is not wrought by scourging the 
body for the sins of the soul. Good works, then ? 
Nay, since every hour is but sufficient unto itself, 
how can future obedience blot out the record of a 
mislived past. What remains for you, then, but to 
throw up your hands and cry mightily unto God ? 

At a like juncture in the life of David, when he was 
hunted like a roe among the hills, and driven to bay, 
he made his appeal to a Power beyond his own and 



324 AT THEIR WITS END. 

not in vain. " This poor man cried, " he says, "and 
the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his 
troubles. ,, 

The dying thief had reached the uttermost limit of 
despair when he cried " Lord, remember me ! " Not 
a moment elapsed before the answer came, " To-day 
thou shalt be with me in Paradise. " There is hope 
for a sinner who knows himself to be lost; and there 
is no hope for any other: for " the Son of Man came 
to seek and to save that which was lost. " So long as 
resources of your own remain, you are likely to de- 
pend upon them ; but if you have come to the end of 
your tether, it is obviously the part of reason to look 
unto the hills for help. There is hope for you, there- 
fore, my troubled friend, in the word that is written, 
"The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive 
sin/' 

The third man of whom I ask an audience is one 
who is confronting duty and feels he cannot discharge 
it. There is nothing in the world so important as 
this, that we should meet our responsibilities and dis- 
charge our utmost duty to ourselves and our fellow- 
men. Yet who is sufficient for this ? Are we not all 
sensible of shortcoming, of avoiding our responsibili- 
ties, of shirking the burden which is laid upon us ? 

It is the fashion in these times to discredit the story 
of Jonah. In fact, however, there is nothing in Holy 
Writ that meets a quicker or more sympathetic re- 
sponse in the soul of the average man. The prophet 
was told to go to Nineveh at peril of his life. He 
pondered, questioned, and finally resolved to meet 
the matter half-way. He would not go to Nineveh, 
but he would go to Tarshish. So he paid his fare, 



AT THEIR WITS END. 325 

took ship, went down into the hold and, having 
quieted conscience with a compromise, fell asleep. 
So far, my friend, the parallel is not difficult to find in 
personal experience. And as Jonah slept, the storm 
arose and down into the hold came a voice, " Arise, 
O sleeper, and call upon thy god ! " (Have you never 
been awakened by a similar voice ?) He appeared on 
deck, saying, " I fear the Lord, and I know that for 
my sake this great tempest is come upon you." So 
they cast him forth into the sea. As to what followed, 
let him speak for himself: "I cried by reason of 
mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out 
of the belly of hell cried I. The waters compassed me 
about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. My 
soul fainted within me; I cried aloud, and he heard 
me. Salvation is of the Lord." 

It is of infinite mercy that we are thus arrested in 
the avoidance of duty, and brought to realize how 
much easier it is to do right with the Lord's help 
than to have our own way. The hardest task is 
within the power of the weakest man who leans on 
an almighty arm. The word of hope is here: " I can 
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. " 

The fourth man whom I would particularly address 
is one who faces temptation. From this there is no 
escape. It is vain to betake oneself to a hermit's cell ; 
the adversary will pursue us. 

It may be, friend, that you have been striving to 
overcome an evil habit, and you have fallen once, 
twice, thrice. Are you discouraged ? Are you quite 
satisfied as to your personal inability ? Have you 
come to your wits' end ? God be praised ! There is 
hope for you. 



326 AT THEIR WITS' END. 

How can a man expect to succeed in his own 
strength when he wrestles not only against principal- 
ities and powers, but against the prince of darkness ? 
But if God be for us, who shall be against us ? Try- 
once more, comrade, and this time in the strength of 
the Omnipotent. Throw thyself on God. Put him in 
remembrance of his great promises. Be confident in 
him. Go out against thine enemy as the shepherd 
boy went forth to meet Goliath in the valley of 
Elah. The sword of Saul and armor of Saul were re- 
jected ; faith was his only panoply. As he approached 
his boastful foe he cried, "Thou comest to me with 
sword and buckler, but I come to thee in the name 
of the living God ! " The result was, as it always is 
under like conditions, he came up from the valley 
dragging the head of Goliath by its gory hair. 
Victory for you, or for any man who, being at his 
wits' end, girds himself with divine power ! Here is 
the word for your present stress: "God is faithful 
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye 
are able, but will with the temptation also make a 
way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 

The fifth man is one in trouble. I know not what 
the trouble is, my friend ; the heart knoweth its own 
bitterness. Is it pain perhaps ? God was with the 
Babylonish youth in the fiery furnace. Is it pov- 
erty ? He sent the ravens to feed his prophet by the 
brook. Is it abandonment and loneliness ? No man 
was ever lonelier than Jacob in the heights of Bethel 
where he saw God's angels coming down a golden 
ladder to help him. Is it disappointment ? Have 
you dreamed dreams and seen visions of success only 
to find your hopes thwarted and your purposes 



AT THEIR WITS END. 327 

brought to naught ? So did Elijah fling himself in 
utter desperation under the juniper tree crying, "It 
is enough; let me die!" But a Voice said, "Arise 
and eat." And he looked and, behold, a cake baken 
on the coals and a cruse of water ; and he arose and did 
eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat 
forty days and forty nights unto the mount of God. 

Be of good courage, if in failure you have dis- 
covered the utmost limit of your strength; for at 
that limit ever stands the waiting God. A man's 
making is in his triumph over circumstances by faith 
in God. So wrote Paul, "We are troubled on every 
side, yet not distressed ; we are perplexed, but not in 
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, 
but not destroyed " ; " that the excellency of the power 
may be of God and not of us." 

The strength of God is thus made perfect in weak- 
ness. Our extremity is God's opportunity. We 
laugh at difficulty ; we exult in the storm ; we triumph 
when, with disjointed thigh, we stagger to the feet 
of the Mightiest This is the truth in the quaint 
words of Herrick : 

"Tumble me down, and I will sit 

Upon my ruins, smiling yet. 
Tear me to tatters, yet I'll be 

Patient in my necessity. 
Laugh at my scraps of clothes and shun 

Me as a dire infection, 
Yet scarecrow-like I'll walk as one 

Neglecting thy derision." 

The sixth man is he who stands in terror of death. 
It is a great question, How to die ? For the black 
camel kneels at every tent. The man who approaches 



328 AT THEIR WITS* END. 

alone the valley of the shadow is always at his wits' 
end; it is obviously the height of folly to put away 
preparation for the journey until the hour of setting 
out. To make God's acquaintance amid the busy 
duties of life is to know him in the hour that trieth 
the soul. " Yea, though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, yet I will fear no evil, for 
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 

I have heard of a lad who, being taken by his father 
on a long voyage, was miserably dreary and home- 
sick. As the ship sailed homeward he brightened day 
by day. On the night of entering the harbor the little 
fellow lay asleep in his berth. He was dimly con- 
scious of the casting of the anchor and voices of 
sailors above him ; then of being lifted in his father's 
arms and carried down the rope-ladder into the little 
boat; then of the splashing of waves and beating of 
oars ; then, still half asleep, of being carried in strong 
arms and laid in his little bed ; then he awoke and it 
was morning, and his mother's face was bending over 
him. Such is death to those who are ready. It is 
being taken up in everlasting arms and carried 
through the night, to awake in the home-land and be 
forever with the Lord. 

And my seventh auditor is the man who fears the 
Judgment. Nor is your fear ungrounded, my friend ; 
since you are well aware that at the great Assize, you 
must plead guilty. There, if never before, you will 
feel yourself at your wits' end. What then? O joy 
unspeakable, if you can look with confidence to him 
who with uplifted, nail-scarred hands shall plead your 
case, shall offer himself as your Substitute in expi- 
ation of the penalties of broken law! I know not 



AT THEIR WITS' END. 329 

what a sinner can say for himself in that Great Day, 
if he cannot make this plea; " He bare my sins in his 
own body on the tree." Thus it is written: "If any 
man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, even 
Jesus Christ the righteous. 

" Great God, when I approach Thy throne, 
And all Thy glory see, 
This is my plea, and this alone, 
That Jesus died for me." 

And now, in closing, I feel reasonably sure that I 
have addressed not seven men, but all before me. 
For, are we not all truth-seekers, all sensible of sin, 
all under the stern obligation of duty, all facing 
temptations beyond our strength, all pilgrims in the 
Vale of Baca, all bound to pass through the little 
wicket-gate and stand at last in judgment? If then 
we are all convinced of our narrow limitations and 
forced to confess ourselves at our wits' end, why shall 
we not get down upon our knees to-night and call 
upon him who is ever able, ever willing, ever ready 
to help? Cry aloud unto God! If he spared not his 
own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall 
he not with him also freely give us all things ? He 
heard David in his distress, and he will hear you. He 
heard Peter when the waters were closing about him, 
and he will hear you. He heard the dying thief in 
his despair, and he will hear you. O that men would 
praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonder- 
ful works to the children of men! 



INDIFFERENT GALLIO 

44 And Gallio cared for none of those things."— Acts 18, 17. 

The Jews of Corinth had long been annoyed by a 
pestilent fellow who insisted on preaching that " Jesus 
is the Christ." This man had formerly been a Rabbi 
of high standing, a member of the Sanhedrin at 
Jerusalem ; but he claimed to have had a supernatural 
vision of Jesus which changed the whole tenor of his 
life. He had come to Corinth two years ago; and, 
while working as a tentmaker for his livelihood, 
made a point of visiting the synagogue Sabbath by 
Sabbath and endeavoring to prove out of the Scrip- 
tures " that this Jesus is the Christ. ,, On being cast 
out of the synagogue he had accepted the invitation 
of a certain Justus who lived near by, to use his home 
for the propagation of his views : and thus he had 
continued to the discomfiture of his Jewish enemies. 
At length, however, there seemed a prospect of relief 
in the appointment of Gallio as proconsul of Achaia. 
On his arrival at Corinth the Jews seized on the con- 
tumacious preacher and dragged him before the 
court, making this formal charge, "He persuadeth 
men to worship God contrary to the law." Paul was 
about to make his defense when Gallio interposed: 
" If this were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, 
reason would that I should bear with you ; but in a 

(330) 



INDIFFERENT GALLIC 33 1 

question of your Maw,' look ye to it; I will be no 
judge of such matters." As the accusers, stung with 
defeat, were leaving court, they were set upon by 
certain Greeks who seized the ruler of the synagogue, 
and beat him shamefully in sight and hearing of the 
judgment-seat. To Gallio, however, this was mere 
by-play and quite beneath his notice. He looked 
through his fingers and winked at it. Why should 
he interfere in petty strife or in the quibbling of 
theological parties? He M cared for none of those 
things." 

Here is a distinct and interesting type of character, 
not unworthy of our study. Gallio was a brother of 
Seneca; a skeptic like that great moralist, but a most 
amiable one. He was a man of broad culture, 
thoroughly familiar with literature and an expert in 
Roman jurisprudence. He is called in the records 
of the time, dulcis Gallio. He was immensely popular 
by reason of his complaisance and amiable disposi- 
tion ; but, he was wholly indifferent to many things, 
and among them the problems of the spiritual life. 
He probably regarded these as quite unsolvable; 
being an agnostic, after the fashion of his time. He 
was the product of the overwrought culture of that 
luxurious age, an age which has been fitly character- 
ized by Matthew Arnold : — 

•' On that hard Roman world disgust 

And sated loathing fell: 
Deap weariness and sated lust 

Made human life a hell. 
In his cool hall, with haggard eyes, 

The noble Roman lay, 
Or drove abroad in furious guise 

Along the Appian Way. 



$$2 INDIFFERENT GALLIC 

He made a feast ; drank deep and fast, 
And crowned his head with flowers. 

No easier and no swifter passed 
The impracticable hours." 

I invite you to a brief contemplation of this attitude 
of mind; an indifference to matters of supreme im- 
portance, born of baffled research or moral weariness. 
It not infrequently consists with great sweetness of 
disposition, broad erudition and the utmost respecta- 
bility. It betrays, however, a lamentable want of 
virility and true courage. A man can not be indif- 
ferent to great spiritual verities without being an 
indifferent sort of man. 

I. As to the Previous Question. Back of all this con- 
troversy lay the proposition of Paul, "This Jesus is 
the Christ.' 5 And while it would appear, on the sur- 
face of the narrative, that Gallio was simply indiffer- 
ent to the party quibblings of the synagogue, he was 
in fact turning his back on the fundamental problem 
of life eternal. As a man of affairs, familiar with the 
religious controversies of his time, he must have 
known about the disputed claims of Jesus. It was 
twenty-two years since the crucifixion, yet the dis- 
pute concerning the Man of Nazareth had gone on 
continuously ever since. Would his specter never be 
laid? Never! This question must be confronted 
and settled by every man. 

The blame of Gallio in refusing to consider the 
claims of Jesus as the Christ must be measured by 
circumstances. He probably regarded this as a mat- 
ter of mere provincial importance, not knowing that 
his own salvation was in the balance. He had doubt- 
less discussed many questions in the forum and in 



INDIFFERENT GALLIC 333 

philosophic halls, but never one so intensely personal 
as this: " Is Jesus the Christ ?" 

But what shall be said of a man who, in the Nine- 
teenth Century, "cares nothing for this thing"? 
The proposition is that Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners ; and we know ourselves to be 
all alike concluded under sin. This proposition is 
sustained by the claim of Jesus himself, by the Holy 
Scriptures, by the eloquent events of eighteen cen- 
turies of Christian progress, and by the united testi- 
mony of some hundreds of millions of people who 
are prepared to certify that this Jesus has delivered 
them from sin's bondage and opened to them the 
gates of the endless life. In view of these facts we 
conceive it possible that a man may consider the cre- 
dentials of Jesus and decide adversely; but it is in- 
comprehensible how any can be indifferent. In a 
matter involving the issues of eternity, heedlessness 
is a sin against reason and indecision a crime against 
conscience. If the claim of Jesus be false, his gospel 
is the greatest imposture of history; if it be true, our 
destiny for eternity depends on our acceptance of him. 

II. As to Other Questions involved in the Messiahship 
of Jesus. Had Gallio interested himself in the con- 
troversy brought before him that day for adjustment, 
he must have been driven to a decision pro or con as 
to other and affiliated matters of great importance; 
such as the Incarnation, the Blood-atonement, the 
Resurrection, the veracity of the Scriptural record 
and the Personality of the Spirit: These are vitally 
connected with the fact contended for by Paul at 
Antioch: "This Jesus is the Christ." 

We are living in an age of controversy; and the 



334 INDIFFERENT GALLIC 

questions now uppermost are these very ones. What 
shall we do with them ? Let them pass ? In some 
quarters it is said, "If we receive Christ as our Sav- 
iour, it matters little what opinion we hold as to 
these controverted dogmas. Christ is everything: 
let the rest go." But this is impossible. As well 
say, "Let us keep Darwin but ignore his theory of 
Evolution"; or, "Let us keep Galileo but take no 
account of the revolution of the earth." As well say, 
" Let us keep life but give no heed to air, water and 
food. " We cannot accept Christ and slight his teach- 
ings. We cannot accept Christ and spurn the essen- 
tial truths which radiate from his life, character and 
work. Christ and Christianity are inseparable. The 
strength of a chain is measured by its weakest link. 
The credentials of the great Teacher are to be deter- 
mined by the weakest truth to which he gave sanc- 
tion. We cannot have Christ without believing in 
him. 

In other quarters it is suggested that matters of 
theological import should be turned over for settle- 
ment to "experts." This applies particularly to the 
Inerrancy of Holy Scripture, but in some measure to 
all allied truths. As a minister of the gospel I resent 
the claim of any particular class of specialists to a 
monopoly of wisdom in this province. The pre- 
sumption, indeed, is in favor rather of those who 
have devoted themselves to religious investigation 
while in close contact with affairs, as against any 
who pursue their researches in academic cloisters by 
the light of midnight oil. But justice to the gospel 
requires that we shall go a step further, and assert 
the rights of the people in these premises. There is 



INDIFFERENT GALLIC 335 

no such thing as "esoteric Christianity. " There are 
no " mysteries," such as are found in Pagan Relig- 
ions, to be imparted only to the initiated. The glory 
of our religion, the historic glory of Protestantism, 
is that no Scripture is of such private interpretation. 
Scholars have their place, indeed ; but the height of 
arrogance is reached when they call upon the people 
to stand aloof while they lift the curtains and pass 
into the sanctum sanctorum to solve for us the prob- 
lems which concern our eternal life. Are we to 
waive our acceptance of the Incarnation, the Atone- 
ment, the Infallibility of the Word, until " experts" 
shall give us leave to accept their ultimatum ? Not 
so have we learned the gospel. Its vital truths, clear 
as a crystal spring, are to be accepted by faith, but- 
tressed by reason and resting on divine authority. 

It is recorded that when the Council of Nice was 
engaged in heated controversy the shepherd Spiridion 
limped in. He had proven his devotion by suffering 
for the truth's sake : one eye had been pierced with a 
hot iron and one leg had been twisted off. " In the 
name of Christ," he said, "O philosophers, hear me! 
Our Lord came into the world and died for our sal- 
vation. He taught many things and his word is an 
end of controversy. To know him is to know all; to 
accept him is to accept all. We who are but common 
men challenge your right to reduce our religion to a 
system of wire-drawn argument. We put you in re- 
membrance of what Jesus said, ' Except ye become 
as little children, ye shall in no wise see the kingdom 
of God/" 

III. As to Questions of Conscience. These also are 
closely related to the original question of the Mes- 



336 INDIFFERENT GALLIC 

siahship of Christ. In the false religions a line is 
drawn between dogma and life ; but there is no such 
distinction in Christianity. Doctrine and ethics are 
vitally associated: for "as a man thinketh in his 
heart so is he. " Had Gallio been willing to face the 
rigid claims of Jesus as the only Saviour, he must 
have proceeded to a corresponding determination of 
all questions of conduct. 

There are some things which are always right or 
always wrong. Here runs "the dead line." The 
follower of Christ must not hesitate for a moment as 
to those matters which are defined in the Decalogue 
and in the Sermon on the Mount. Impiety, dis- 
honesty, Sabbath-breaking, murder, scandal-monger- 
ing, licentiousness, covetousness; these are always 
wrong, under all circumstances: and nothing can 
ever make them right. 

But there are other things which are right or 
wrong according to circumstances. The idol-meats 
of Corinth furnish an illustration: (i Cor. viii.). 
There are people who claim the right to indulge in 
intoxicating drink; and while certain of us see clearly 
the duty of abstinence for ourselves, it is not for us 
to impose the determinations of our conscience on 
others. But there must be no indifference here. 
Let each for himself decide, prayerfully, in the light 
of Biblical precept and Christian charity. "Let 
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." 
The danger is not so much in a difference of opinion 
as in indecision. If you are in doubt as to the wine- 
glass, give your conscience the benefit of the doubt, 
by all means. And in any case, when you have 
determined the right, let not a legion of devils tempt 



INDIFFERENT GALLIC 337 

you to swerve from it ; for nothing can compensate 
a man for a violation of his moral sense. 

One thing is never right, to wit, indifference to the 
distinction between right and wrong. The most con- 
temptible legend that ever was inscribed on any 
shield was that of the so-called " resolute Rufus," 
who, having the name of Jehovah on one side and of 
Satan on the other, wrote above them, " In utrumque 
paratus" j i.e., " Ready for either! " 

IV. As to the great Question of the Welfare of our 
Fellow-men. This also is closely related to the Origi- 
nal Question touching the credentials of Christ. Had 
Gallio been concerned with reference to that matter, 
he must logically have proceeded to interest himself 
in the good of those about him ; for Christ came into 
the world to save men with a great salvation, a salva- 
tion which should inevitably interest them profoundly 
in the uplifting of all. The opening word of the 
Lord's Prayer, " Our, " has in it all the Magna Chartas 
and Declarations of Independence and manifestoes of 
civil and ecclesiastical freedom of all history. The 
doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, as proclaimed by 
his only-begotten and well-beloved Son, our Elder 
Brother, involves the complementary doctrine of the 
Brotherhood of Men. 

Our Lord dwelt on the importance of being a good 
" neighbor. " The word, however, hast lost much of 
its helpful significance in our modern life, and partic- 
ularly in great municipal centers. We scarcely know 
who lives next door. The doctor comes, and we won- 
der who is sick; there is crape on the doorknob, and 
we wonder who has died. Yet the teaching of Jesus 
is not wholly ineffective, else why the general inter- 



338 INDIFFERENT GALLIC 

est just now in the finding of a kidnapped child ? 
There is scarcely a mother who is not praying that 
God will relieve the suspense of the agonized parents 
concerning their little one. The lost baby has be- 
come, in a sense, an inmate of every home. This 
sympathy is a tribute to the gospel of universal fel- 
lowship. Had not Jesus taught us to say, "Our 
Father/ ' we could scarcely be thinking thus of the 
lost child as if it were ours. It is only in gospel 
light that "one touch of nature makes the whole 
world kin." 

It is the business of Christ's people to concern 
themselves not only with the affairs of the neighbor- 
hood, but in the larger life of the Commonwealth. 
No man who has caught the genius of the Gospel 
can be indifferent to politics. It is by reason of our 
inadequate apprehension of the real principles of 
Christianity that we are forced to lament the present 
lack of public sentiment as to abuses in our munic- 
ipal affairs. There are enough Christian people in 
New York to put an end to all prevailing corruption 
if only they cared about it. The power of an en- 
lightened public sentiment has been recently shown 
in London, with reference to the Sunday newspaper. 
The Mail and the Telegraph began to print Sunday 
editions, only to be met by vigorous protests on every 
hand. I know not what measures were put in opera- 
tion, what sort of sanctified boycott was instituted ; 
it is enough that, for some reason, both papers have 
been constrained to withdraw their Sunday issues. 
Why is it that there is no corresponding outburst of 
Christian sentiment in our American cities ? It can- 
not be because there is one standard as to Sabbath 



INDIFFERENT GALLIC 339 

observance in England and another in America. It can 
only be on account of a lamentable indifference. We 
know well enough that the Sunday newspaper is an 
incalculable evil and a manifest violation of divine 
law; yet we care so little that many among us lend 
our patronage and become accessory to the sin. 

We find another instance of culpable indifference 
on the part of Christian people in the matter of 
universal Missions. There is no divergence of opinion 
as to Christ's purpose respecting the conversion of 
the world. The Great Commission is quite clear, 
and equally clear is our duty concerning it. Yet we 
are told that the annual contribution of the Church 
is only about ten cents per capita for the conversion 
of the nations. Was not Doctor Duff right when he 
said, "We are playing at Missions ?" The trouble 
is, many among us do not care deeply whether the 
world is converted or not, do not care whether 
Christ's commission is carried out or not, do not 
care whether his Kingdom is established on earth or 
not. "Don't care" is preventing the advent of 
Christ. "Don't care" is responsible for the evils 
that prevail in public life. "Don't care" must be 
held to an account for much of the crime and beg- 
gary in our streets. Indifferent Gallio blocks the 
wheels of progress everywhere. 

In 1791 William Pitt and Edmund Burke, dining 
together in London, discussed the evils of the time. 
The dangers of the French Revolution were threaten- 
ing England. Pitt said, " Never fear, my friend, 
you may depend upon it we shall go on as we are 
until the Day of Judgment." To which Burke re- 
plied, "Very likely; but it is the Day of No Judg- 



34° INDIFFERENT GALLIC 

ment that I am afraid of." And, indeed, this is the 
ominous fact. Men look at great problems and pass 
no judgment. They look askance at great responsi- 
bilities and avoid them. They see the wounded trav- 
eler on the Bloody Way to Jericho and pass by on 
the other side. They care for none of these things. 
But in the light of the gospel and in prospect of the 
Judgment, it is the business of all earnest men, and 
certainly of such as profess to be Christians, to care 
and care profoundly for all things that have to do 
with the welfare of men here or hereafter. Nero has 
gone into history not more for his cruelty and disso- 
luteness than for his fiddling while Rome was burn- 
ing. Gallio, with all his amiable qualities, is yet 
immortalized only by his culpable indifference to 
matters of importance occurring about him. This is 
the lesson, then ; care for truth, care for virtue, meet 
the responsibilities of your life, be in earnest. There 
is no neutral ground for earnest men. Be fully per- 
suaded in your own mind ; and be able to give an 
answer to every man that asketh a reason for the 
hope that is in you. 



THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS 

11 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith 
unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with 
him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very 
heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death : tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and 
fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me : nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh 
unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could 
ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
temptation : the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. He went away 
again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not 
pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and 
found them asleep again ; for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and 
went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then 
cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your 
rest : behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the 
hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand that doth 
betray me."— Matthew 26, 36-46. 

Let us begin with a syllogism. First premise: 
God's will is perfect. Second premise : God wills with 
reference to every man. Conclusion : The perfect man 
is he whose will is adjusted to the will of God. 

And here is the occasion of the struggle. What we 
need is to have our wills brought into conformity to the 
divine will ; but, alas ! though the spirit be willing the 
flesh is weak. The wrestling of Jacob at the brook- 
side "all night long till break of day" finds a sym- 
pathetic response in every earnest life. That was a 
stern grappling of the human and divine, each bent 
on winning, each refusing to let the other go. But 

(341) 



342 THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 

at length omnipotence touched the thigh of human 
infirmity and its sinew shrank; and Jacob went limp- 
ing away, triumphant in his defeat; as it is written, 
"When I am weak then am I strong." And indeed 
no man is successful in the moral province until God 
has grappled and thrown him ; that is, until the hu- 
man is brought into conformity to the divine will. 
He who thus succumbs is crowned " Israel," because 
as a prince he hath prevailed with God. 

We observe a parallel also in Paul's record of the 
strife between the carnal and the spiritual. "I see 
another law in my members warring against the law 
of my mind "; " for to will is present with me, but 
how to perform that which is good, I find not. — For 
the good that I would, I do not: but the evil that I 
would not, that I do. — O wretched man that I am! 
Who shall deliver me from this body of death ? I 
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" He 
represents himself not as one loving bondage, but as 
a slave struggling to be free yet desperately ham- 
pered by his chains. He knows his happiness lies in 
his emancipation; yet he resists the magnanimous 
efforts of his divine antagonist to deliver him. He 
can triumph only in the shrinking of nis thigh. Here 
is the meaning of that hopeful cry, "I thank God, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord ! " 

The conflict thus outlined in the experience of Jacob 
and of Paul finds its consummation in Gethsemane, 
in Christ the representative Man, made in all points 
like as we are only without sin. Here is the Battle 
of the Two Wills at its best and fiercest. The victory 
of Christ is signal and glorious, finding expression in 
the words, " Father, thy will be done! " 



THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 343 

44 Like him who came and conquered there, 

In that low garden, 
So rise we victors from our prayer ; 

Christ is our warden, 
And holdeth crowns for us to wear. 
* Thy will be done ! ' we bow and say } 

What cometh after 
Is but the dawning of the day ; 

If tears or laughter, 
God's will and ours move but one way" 

The key of this mysterious struggle in Gethsemane 
is this relation of the human and divine wills. Here 
is the deep fountain that sent forth those piteous ap- 
peals and agonized cries. Let us follow, as we may, 
the line of that conflict from its beginning in the earthly 
life of Jesus to the bitter hour when, in the stress of 
battle, he sweat as it were " great drops of blood." 

I. The Advent of Christ was in pursuance of the divine 
will. It was God's purpose, in which Christ himself 
was wholly acquiescent, that he should go into the 
world, in fullness of time, and suffer and die vicari- 
ously for the salvation of men. 

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah we are introduced 
into the eternal councils of the Trinity, where a voice 
is heard, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for 
us ?" The cry of the ruined race for help had come 
up to heaven, and there was no eye to pity and no 
arm to save. Should they be left to perish in their 
sin ? Nay ! "Then said I, ' Here am I, send me! ' " 
Is it the prophet Isaiah who thus volunteers; or does 
he speak as the living type of One who should be 
wounded for the world's transgressions and bruised 
for its iniquities, that by his stripes the race of sin- 
ners may be healed ? 



344 THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 

If the Messianic character of that prophecy be 
questioned, let us interpret it by comparison with 
another. In the fortieth Psalm it is written, "Sacri- 
fice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears 
hast thou opened (that is, to the cry of suffering hu- 
manity and to the divine decree of salvation). Burnt 
offering and sin offering has thou not required. Then 
said I, 'Lo, I come! in the volume of the book it 
is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God ! 
yea, thy law is within in my heart \" Here David 
seems to be speaking for himself; but is there not a 
deeper reference to David's greater Son ? Is he not 
setting forth, out of his own experience, a sweet 
prophecy of what the Christ shall do in fullness of 
time when, in pursuance of the eternal purpose, he 
shall bear the world's sin in his own body on the 
tree ? 

If there be still a lingering question as to the Mes- 
sianic character of these predictions, let us turn to 
the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where 
the interpretation is made clear: " For the law hav- 
ing a shadow of good things to come, and not the 
very image of the things, can never with those sacri- 
fices, which they offered year by year continually, 
make the comers thereunto perfect. For it is not 
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should 
take away sins. Wherefore, when He cometh into the 
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest 
not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt 
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleas- 
ure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the 
book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. 
Above when he said, ' Sacrifice and offering and burnt 



THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 345 

offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, 
neither hadst pleasure therein ; which are offered by 
the law ' ; then said he, c Lo, I come to do thy will, 
O God ! ' He taketh away the first that he may estab- 
lish the second. By the which will we are sanctified 
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once 
for all." 

II. The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ were wholly 
in line with this expression of the divine will. We have 
seen that he came into the world in pursuance of an 
eternal decree respecting his redemptive work. He 
girt himself with omnipotence, bound on the sandals 
of the preparation of the gospel, and went forth from 
heaven as the knight-errant of the ruined race. He 
next appears in the incarnation ; a Child lying in a 
manger. Great is the mystery of godliness, God 
is manifest in flesh! 

And from that point onward his life ran parallel to 
the great purpose. When his enemies called his cre- 
dentials in question he defended himself in these 
words : "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the 
Father which hath sent me." (John 5, 30.) 

At the age of twelve years he was found in the tem- 
ple, sitting among the doctors, probably reasoning 
with them out of the Scriptures concerning this 
divine purpose of redemption. On being reproved 
by his parents he replied, " Wist ye not that I must 
be about my Father's business ? " Thus it appears 
that from the very beginning he recognized his work, 
was familiar with the divine plan and was resolved to 
pursue it. 

At the outset of his ministry he was led of the 
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The stress 



346 THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 

of that temptation was to divert him from his inten- 
tion of dying for the children of men. It closed with 
an offer which profoundly appealed to his natural 
aversion to death. The adversary, taking him up into 
an high mountain, showed him, as with a wave of the 
hand, all the kingdoms of the world and said, " I am 
the prince of this world. I know thy purpose: how 
thou comest to set up thy kingdom by the power of 
the cross. But why shouldst thou suffer and die ? 
These kingdoms are mine. One act of homage and 
I will abdicate! Fall down and worship me and thou 
shalt have them all. " But to that alluring suggestion 
the Lord made answer, "It is written!" that is, the 
plan has been eternally marked out and there can be 
no other way. He thus kept himself in line with the 
great purpose, even in that bitterest hour; "and, be- 
hold, angels came and ministered unto him." 

He sat upon the curb of Jacob's well, near to 
Sychar, while his disciples went into the city to buy 
food. On their return they found him talking with 
an abandoned woman concerning the great truths of 
the endless life. ' ' Master, eat, M they said : he replied, 
"I have meat to eat that ye know not of." Seeing 
their look of wonder, he continued, ' ' My meat is to do 
the will of him that sent me and to finish his work." 

To do God's will, — that was the sole end and aim 
of that wonderful life. But to keep himself thus in 
sympathy with the divine will involved constant 
struggle, else he would not be a man. As a man, he 
had a sovereign will, the only difference between his 
will and ours being that his was unfettered by sin. 
As a man like ourselves, his will must needs be re- 
sponsive to his senses. When he was an hungered 



THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 347 

and the flesh cried "Eat," he answered, "I will." 
At the close of a weary day in his carpenter-shop, 
when nerves and sinews cried " Rest," he answered, 
" I will," and laid himself down to sleep. And being 
constituted in all points as other men are, sin only 
excepted, he must have shared with us in the universal 
dread of suffering and death. This brings us to 
Gethsemane, where we view the strenuous shock and 
crisis of the battle. 

III. The thickening struggle is seen in Christ's approach 
to his cross. As the end drew near he set forth on his 
last journey to Jerusalem. At Caesarea-Philippi he 
discoursed with his disciples concerning the decease 
which he was presently to accomplish ; he told them 
plainly that he must suffer and die. Chill as winter 
and dark as an Egyptian night fell the shadow of the 
cross over him. Little wonder that he was "very 
sorrowful." He was himself without sin, but the 
world's burden was upon him. On reaching Jerusa- 
lem he had much to say, through Passion Week, of 
his sufferings and death. His voice in the upper 
room had all the tender pathos of a mother's farewell 
to her dear ones. The night closes more and more 
densely about him until, at length, taking with him 
the three chosen, he comes to the garden of Geth- 
semane. " Tarry ye here," he says to them, u while 
I go yonder and pray." 

And there under the shadow of the olive trees the 
great struggle was fought to a finish. The purple 
cup of death was pressed to his lips. He knew what 
it meant: the shame, the anguish, the awful gloom 
at noonday, the abandonment of friends, the momen- 
tary taste of hell in the hiding of his Father's face, 



348 THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 

the heartbreak of sorrow for others' sin — these were 
in that bitter cup. He would have been less than a 
man had he not shuddered ; less than a man had he 
not cried, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me." He wrestled like Jacob at the 
brook. He struggled like Paul in the grip of Death, 
crying, " Who shall deliver me ? " He moaned, "My 
soul is exceeding sorrowful." He fell upon his 
face in anguish. His " sweat was as it were grea^ 
drops of blood." But he won! Knowing that the 
drinking of that cup was necessary to salvation, he 
drank it to its dregs, saying, "O my Father, if this 
cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, 
thy will be done." So he became obedient unto 
death for us. He won the victory; and he won it as 
our representative. O blessed Christ, thou canst be 
touched with a feeling of our infirmity! Thou know- 
est what it is to face the King of Terrors! Thou 
knowest what it is to close in with a most divine and 
gracious purpose while the flesh shrinks and quivers. 
Thou hast fought even through the Valley of the 
Shadow for us! Thou wast " exceeding sorrowful" 
and " sore amazed " and "very heavy " at the visage 
of Death: but thou didst conquer; and conquest 
now is possible for us "through Christ which 
strengtheneth us." 

All was easy after that. There could be no further 
resistance. The sword of Peter flashed from its scab- 
bard to defend him from his adversaries; but he said, 
"Put up thy sword into the sheath": and to those 
who sought him he said, " I am he." He could have 
swept them away with a breath from his nostrils, but 
his path was marked out. " He was led as a lamb to 



THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 349 

the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he opened not his mouth." He ran through 
Via Dolorosa with willing feet, his heart singing, 
11 In the volume of the book it is written of me; 'I 
rejoice to do thy will.'" They nailed him to his 
cross and he struggled not. His soul was saying, 
" Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy 
sight." They lifted him up between heaven and 
earth and mocked his anguish. " Come down," they 
cried, "if thou be the Christ!" But he could not 
come down, since he was serving the divine will. He 
suffered on, like an unhorsed knight trudging to his 
destination. Legions of angels were hovering over 
his cross ready, at a word from those parched lips, to 
draw the nails and bear him to his throne; but every 
fevered drop of blood and every quivering nerve cried 
out, ' c O God, thy will be done ! " At the end he said 
with a loud voice, like one who stands on the parapet, 
mortally wounded but victorious, "It is finished!" 
And thus was the world saved, by the blending of 
the will of Jesus with the perfect will of God. 

The lesson is clear. The perfect man is he who 
lives the Christlike life. The crossing of the two 
wills is sin; the blending of the two wills is victory 
over sin. He who knows his own Gethsemane has 
found the peace that passeth understanding and can 
sing, whatever comes, 

I worship Thee, sweet Will of God, 

And all Thy ways adore ; 
And every day I live, I seem 

To love Thee more and more. 
I love to kiss each print where Thou 

Hast set Thine unseen feet: 



35° THE BATTLE OF THE TWO WILLS. 

I cannot fear Thee, blessed Will, 

Thine empire is so sweet. 
I have no cares, O blessed Will, 

For all my cares are Thine ; 
I live in triumph, Lord, for Thou 

Hast made Thy triumphs mine. 
Ill that He blesses is our good, 

And unblest good is ill ; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 

If it be His dear will. 

The best definition of a Christian is that which 
Christ himself has given; "Not every one that saith 
unto me, 'Lord, Lord/ shall enter into the kingdom 
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
which is in heaven." 

The secret of an earnest life is in the exhortation of 
Paul: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of 
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service. And be ye not conformed to this world : but 
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, 
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and 
perfect Will of God. " 

And the consummation of life is reached when we 
can pray as Christ has taught us, saying, "Our Father 
who art in heaven, thy will be done." 



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